Engaging the Community in Disaster Risk Reduction (Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change)

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Engaging the Community in Disaster Risk
Reduction(Adaptation to Climate Variability and
Change)

• by
• Rosa T. Perez
• PAGASA/DOST

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Philippines Natural Disaster Risks

• The crucial relationships that exist between
  natural disaster risks, the environment and their
  combined impacts on human societies are
  particularly evident
• People are highly dependent on the natural
  environment, and historical records testify to
  the devastating effects that natural disasters
  cause in the region
• There is growing concern about the potential for
  increasingly frequent and more severe
  meteorological and hydrological hazards resulting
  from climate change, and how they may affect the
  country

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• Public transport jeepneys sit stranded on a
  flooded road in Manila August 25, 2004. The worst
  flooding to hit the northern Philippines in three
  decades has killed 43 people and caused more than
  20 million in damage,

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• A Philippine Air Force helicopter hovers over a
  house submerged by floodwaters in Paniqui Tarlac
  in northern Philippines August 27, 2004. An
  aerial view shows parts of Paniqui town (bottom).
  Nearly 1,000 villages in a vast plain of rice
  fields and fish ponds, once the rice bowl of the
  Philippines, had been under chest-deep water for
  almost a week, affecting more than 1.6 million
  people.

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People attending a religious service inside a
flooded church in Lubao, Pampanga in the northern
Philippines August 28, 2004.

• A woman sits outside her house submerged in
  floodwaters in a village in Bulacan province in
  the northern Philippines August 30, 2004.

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• A father carries his son on his shoulder as they
  wade through floodwaters in a village in Bulacan
  province in the northern Philippines August 30,
  2004.

A villager tends his roosters in a flooded
village in Bulacan province in the northern
Philippines August 30, 2004.
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Monsoon rains trigger floods, landslides -
Carranglan, Nueva Ecija hundreds of commuters
were stranded.
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Mainstreaming Adaptation Through Disaster Risk
Reduction

• While we cannot do away with natural hazards,
  we can eliminate those we cause, minimize those
  we exacerbate, and reduce our vulnerability to
  most. Doing this requires healthy and resilient
  communities and ecosystems. Viewed in this light,
  disaster mitigation is clearly part of a broader
  strategy of sustainable development-making
  communities and nations socially, economically,
  and ecologically sustainable. - J. Abramovitz

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Engaging the Community

• Much has been learnt from the creative disaster
  prevention efforts of poor communities in
  developing countries. Prevention policy is too
  important to be left to governments and
  international agencies alone. To succeed, it must
  also engage civil society, the private sector and
  the media. Kofi Annan, IDNDR Programme forum,
  Geneva, July 1999

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Community

• The definition of community in this context
  refers to a social group, which has a number of
  things in common, such as shared experience,
  locality, culture, heritage

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Risk reduction measures

• Most successful when they involve the direct
  participation of the people most likely to be
  exposed to hazards, in the planning,
  decision-making, and operational activities at
  all levels of responsibility
• Local leaders, drawn from political, social and
  economic sectors of society need to assume a
  primary responsibility for the protection of
  their own community.

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Risk reduction measures

• The involvement of local residents in protecting
  their own resources is possible and can work if
  sufficient attention and investment is devoted to
  the subject.

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The essential role of community action

• Disaster reduction is most effective at the
  community level where specific local needs can be
  met.
• When used alone, government and institutional
  interventions often prove to be insufficient and
  frequently are seen to be sporadic and only
  responding to crises.
• A topdown approach is inclined to ignore local
  perceptions and needs and the potential value of
  local resources and capacities in the process.

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The essential role of community action

• As a result, it is not surprising that emergency
  relief assistance far exceeds resources invested
  to develop local disaster risk reduction
  capabilities
•  First, communities must be aware of the
  importance of disaster reduction for their own
  well-being. It then becomes necessary to identify
  and impart essential skills that can translate
  risk awareness into concrete practices of
  sustained risk management.
• Such an approach needs to develop activities that
  can strengthen communities capacities to
  identify and cope with hazards, and more broadly
  to improve residents livelihoods

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Case example Community-based Flood risk
management

• PROJECT MANAGER / IMPLEMENTOR Local Government
  Unit (LGU)
• TECHNICAL ADVISER / ASSISTANT Flood Forecasting
  Branch (FFB), Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical
  and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA)
  / Dept. of Science and Technology (DOST)
• TARGET BENEFICIARIES People residing in the
  flood prone areas
•  

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Community-based Flood risk management

• One aspect in the management of pre-flood
  disaster period at the local level, is the
  putting-up of a community-based flood forecasting
  and/or warning system
• Hope to address flood forecasting/warning
  problems especially those coming from small and
  medium-sized rivers where flash flooding usually
  occurs

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Community-based Flood risk management

• Usually, the lead-time for preparedness is short,
  i.e. the rivers response time to rainfall is
  rather quick
• A local flood forecasting and/or warning system
  is seen to empower the local people, promote
  self-help/reliance and encourage participation
  along with the use and enhancement of indigenous
  knowledge and capability to mitigate or prevent
  flood losses and damages. 

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Community-based Flood risk management

• Develop indicators for forecasting and warning
  based on rainfall and water levels relationship
  of upstream and downstream gauging stations
• Locals will be trained to develop flood hazard
  maps based on actual observations
• Provide public information and education

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Community-based Flood risk management

• The planning stage essentially dwells on
• Who to include.
• What techniques to use in order to obtain citizen
  input
• What information need to be provided to citizens.

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Some Insights

• Community leadership and relationships
•  Any system of local planning and protection must
  be integrated into larger administrative and
  resource capabilities such as provincial, state
  and national disaster plans and risk reduction
  strategies. It is equally important to realize
  that communities cannot implement community-based
  disaster mitigation alone.
•  Viable forms of community-based disaster
  reduction depend on a favorable political
  environment that understands, promotes and
  supports this participation process.

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Some Insights

• Community leadership and relationships
• A special effort is required to recall locally
  valued traditional coping mechanisms and
  strategies.
• Modern concepts and technology can provide
  innovative approaches.

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Challenges and Priorities

• People have to understand and accept that they
  also have a responsibility towards their own
  survival it is not simply a matter for
  governments to find and provide solutions.  
• Transfer of expertise at a local level, e.g.
  early warning systems and procedures suited to
  small-scale requirements.
• Transfer of local experiences, and their thematic
  application within various communities have to be
  developed.

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Challenges and Priorities

• Better communication is required among
  authorities and managers, and among community
  leaders for this purpose.
• Existing grass-roots and community-based
  organizations at community level, including women
  organizations, should be reinforced, for them to
  take action and participate on disaster risk
  reduction activities.

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Thank you for your Attention!