Disaster Mitigation: Effectiveness of Community Participation Approach

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Disaster Mitigation Effectiveness of Community
Participation Approach

• International Conference on Disaster Management
  and Environment, Melaka, Malaysia
• Siddhartha Dave, India

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Key Disaster Terms

• Hazard
• A hazard is a natural or manmade phenomenon which
  may cause physical damage, economic loss or
  threaten human life and well being if it occurs
  in an area of human settlement, agricultural or
  industrial activity.
• Disaster
• Disaster is an event (happening with or without
  warning) causing or threatening death, injury or
  disease damage to property, infrastructure or
  the environment or disruption to the community,
  which exceeds the ability of the affected society
  to cope using only its own resources.

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Key Disaster Terms

• Risk
• Risk is defined as the expected losses (lives
  lost, persons injured, damage to property,
  economic activities or livelihoods disrupted) to
  a community when a hazard event occurs.
• Vulnerability
• Vulnerability is defined as the degree of loss to
  a given element at risk (or set of elements)
  resulting from a given hazard at a given severity
  level.
• Resilience
• Resilience is the degree to which a victims own
  tangible and intangible resources and access to
  external resources facilitate the recovery from
  the physical and social impacts of a disaster.

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DISASTERS - DEFINING CRITERIA

• CAUSE disaster can result from a natural (flood)
  or unnatural (transport accident) hazard.
• FREQUENCY AND RISK some disasters occur more
  often and therefore present a greater risk than
  others. In Gujarat drought and cyclone are more
  frequent than the earthquake.
• DURATION OF IMPACT some disasters are of limited
  duration, while others last for long periods. A
  tornado may last a few minutes, but a drought may
  go on for years.

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DISASTERS - DEFINING CRITERIA ( Contd.)

• SPEED OF ONSET The occurrence of some disasters
  is sudden, while others have a warning period of
  hours or days. There may be little warning of a
  flash flood, whereas drought considered as a slow
  onset disaster has a longer warning time.
• SCOPE OF IMPACT Some disasters affect a
  relatively small area, and others affect whole
  countries. While Landslide is a localized event,
  the impact of earthquake can be felt across the
  political boundary of a district/state/country.
• PREDICTABILITY some disasters follow certain
  patterns, others dont (e.g. floods are usually
  confined to known floodplains, but toxic gas
  emissions have no boundaries).
• DESTRUCTIVE POTENTIAL the destructive potential
  of a disaster can vary with the hazard type as
  well as depends on the frequency, scale and
  severity of the hazard.

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Can we prevent ourselves from hazards?

• While most disasters cannot be avoided, there are
  things people can do to lessen the loss of life
  and property damage.
• Are Disasters Natural or Man (Human) Made?

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Rare Pictures of Sandstorm in Iran
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Understanding Disaster Mitigation
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Elements of Disaster Management and Mitigation

• Preparedness
• Response
• Emergency Rescue Relief
• Relief
• Recovery
• Restoration
• Rehabilitation
• Reconstruction
• Retrofitting
• Mitigation
• Prevention

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Preparedness

• Disaster preparedness means the measures, which
  enable governments, organizations, communities
  and individuals to respond rapidly and
  effectively to disaster situations.
• Preparedness measures include
• Forecasting and testing of warning systems.
• Evacuation plans during a disaster alert period.
• Education of officials, the population at risk
  and intervention teams.
• Policies, standards, organizational arrangements
  and operational plans to be applied following a
  disaster.
• Stockpiling supplies and earmarking funds.

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Response

• Disaster Response constitutes the measures taken
  immediately prior to and following disaster
  impact with a view to saving life, protecting
  property and to dealing with the immediate
  disruption, damage and other effects caused by
  the disaster.
• Typical measures include
• Search Rescue
• Evacuation
• Survey and Assessment
• Provision of emergency food, shelter, medical
  assistance etc.

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Recovery

• Recovery is the process by which the community is
  assisted in returning to normal level of
  functioning following a disaster. The recovery
  process can be long, taking 5 to 10 years or even
  more.
• The three main categories of activity under the
  recovery phase are
• Restoration measures to reestablishing essential
  services (power, communication, and
  transportation) disrupted by the disaster.
• Rehabilitation any activity the object of which
  is to restore normalcy in conditions caused by a
  disaster (Gujarat State Disaster Management
  Act). For example, the measures to assist the
  physical and psychological rehabilitation of
  affected people or community.
• Reconstruction, the repair and construction of a
  property undertaken after disaster (Gujarat State
  Disaster Management Act). One example of
  reconstruction measure is replacement of
  buildings and infrastructure, which have been
  destroyed in the disaster.

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Disaster Reduction

• Disaster reduction involves measures designed to
  avoid (prevent) or limit (mitigate and prepare
  for) the adverse impact of disasters.
• Prevention means measures to avoid the
  occurrence of a disaster (Gujarat State Disaster
  Management Act,). An example of disaster
  prevention is the decision not to allow
  communities to build houses in vulnerable or
  disaster prone areas.
• Mitigation means measures aimed at reducing the
  impact or effects of a disaster (Gujarat State
  Disaster Management Act,). Examples of
  mitigation are
• Retrofitting of buildings
• Installation of flood control dams,
• Training and legislation

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Disaster Management- Expand Contract Model (A
New Perspective on CBDP)
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Community Based Disaster Preparedness
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Community Based Disaster Preparedness

• What ? Response Mechanism.
• Why? To minimize loss.
• When? Throughout the year.
• Where? Villages/Hamlets/GPs/ Blocks.
• Who? Villagers/NGOs/CBOs/Govt.Officials.
• How? With the involvement of the
  Community.

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Why Community ?

• First responder
• Familiar with local coping mechanism
• Could be better prepared through Pressure groups
  and advocacy
• Sharing disaster preparedness costs
• Early warning dissemination

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Expected Outcomes

• Mutually agreed plan of action / set of
  procedures to be followed by the community after
  the receipt of warning.
• Action Leads to minimize loss (life, livelihood,
  live stock and Assets)
• Self reliant / confident community

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Components of CBDP
Co-operation
Group Formation
Participation
Distribution of task
Community Preparedness Plan
Mitigation Plan
Fund raising
Resource/Vul. Mapping.
Simp.real. Planning
Storage Stock Pilling.
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Approach

• Vulnerability resource Mapping
• Networking of CBOs/NGOs
• Formation and capacity building of DMC at various
  levels
• Capacity building of the CBOs/ Govt.staff/PRIs
  and others in Disaster Management
• Development of Contingency Plans at various
  levels
• Formation and training of task forces/mock drills
• Control rooms/Ham radio/mounds

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Risk Reduction through

• Early receipt and dissemination of warning
• Emergency kits at villages
• Identification and plan of action for risk groups
• Trained task forces at all levels
• Contingency plans
• Stock pilling of emergency materials

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The Process

• Stage-I
• Identification and capacity building of NGOs/CBOs
• Orientation of the Block staff/Line depts. on CBDP

• Stage-II
• Orientation of the PRI members.
• Orientation of the village volunteers

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Cont

• Stage-III
• Involvement of women SHG s
• Involvement of field level Govt. functionaries

• Stage-IV
• Formation of DM committees at all levels
• Formation and training of task forces
• .

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Cont

• Stage-V
• Contingency Planning
• Mock Drills

• Stage-VI
• Creation and training of HAM clubs
• Control rooms at GP and Blocks
• Construction of Mound

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Cont
Stake Holders Responsibility
PO, CBDP, Block staff, NGOs. CBOs
Facilitate the training
Ensures representation of villagers
PRI Member.
Women SHG Members
Ensures participation of women
Local clubs/ village Volunteers
Sensitization meeting other logistic support
AWW/School Teachers
Awareness Generation/Campaign
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Thanks