9 Issues and Challenges in Disaster Management
Dr. Rajnish Ranjan
Objectives
To develop a basic understanding of the issues and challenges in disaster management
Rationale
The disaster management sector is a fast emerging sector in India, which is facing multiple challenges across multiple areas of interventions . This module aims to provide a basic understanding of the multi-faceted and dynamic challenges being faced by Disaster Management sector and their complex interactions. Having a thorough knowledge of complexities in DM will allow an individual to better understand the scope of development of the sector and also explore practical solutions to the issues faced.
2. Strengthening disaster risk governance to manage disaster risk
This is recognized by various national and international agencies as the key issue in Disaster Risk Management and Risk Reduction. Agency like UNDP has made this as a cornerstone of its efforts to understand, reduce and manage disaster risks, however this is still a challenge before the nation how disaster risk governance can be percolated at the grass root level.
3. Investing in disaster risk reduction for resilience
This is also one of the important challenging issues of Disaster Risk Management in the country. In order to make the community disaster resilience it is necessary to have more investment opportunities in this sector that can promote disaster resilience at all levels. In the contemporary scenario, investors are having lack of clarity about the emerging investment opportunities in this sector.
4. Enhancing disaster preparedness for effective response and to “Build Back Better” in recovery, rehabilitation and reconstruction
The Sendai Framework strongly advocates the need to have Disaster Risk Management approach rather than Disaster Management, thus raising the issue of paradigm shift in the approach from reactive to proactive. This is still challenging for the country to achieve this target .
Risk Assessment – Risk assessment is a complex mechanism. Though established frameworks are existing for risk assessments, the measurement of the components to assess risk, which is hazards, exposure and vulnerability is not clearly explained.
a. Contextual nature of vulnerabilityincreases the complexities in definite quantitative assessment of vulnerability. The vulnerability of specific sections of the population is recognized, but measuring the degree to which they are vulnerable is not feasible.
Additionally, the vulnerability factors change across disaster types. While in earthquakes, people staying inside houses and offices which are not earthquake resistant
b. Understanding emerging risks – The contextual nature of risk also makes the disaster risk dynamic. Road accidents weren’t under high risk when there were no automobiles or the introduction of helmet as a protective mechanism against casualty/injury during motorcycle accidents, raising the risk taking capacity of motorcycle drivers. Another instance is tsunami not being considered a great risk in India prior to December 2004 due to the negligible records of previous instances of tsunami in the Indian territory. With climate change as a probable factor for increasing average daily temperatures and the reduction in the difference between the maximum and minimum temperatures, greater efforts are required in understanding the risks that brings forth.
c. Access to baseline data – A clarity in specific hazard occurrences and corresponding vulnerability of community could be achieved when the baseline information and proper recording of events is undertaken. Only with this understanding of the community and the impact of previous hazards, any targeted intervention towards mitigation or prevention could be designed and implemented with effective outcome as the reduction of disaster risk. Baseline information and recording of events with their impact would need coordination and direction at all levels in the governance.
5. Coordination mechanismbetween the various institutions– Due to the large number of stakeholders having different roles ,responsibilities and authorities within the institutional set-up (DDMA,SDMA, NDMA, SEC, NEC etc.), the coordination between institutions require special direction and purpose to the larger goal of disaster risk reduction in the country. Coordination is also essential between the state and non-state actors. Given the diversity of Indian population, and the diversity in the needs and vulnerabilities, coordination becomes a key challenge that must be overcome. The following are some of the major factors posing challenge in this sector –
a. Multiple agencies are involved even in the assessment of disaster risks. Streams like geography, development studies, anthropology, sociology, health sciences, engineering and geophysical sciences and social psychology are few of the multi-disciplinary areas where experts must be brought together in order to have a comprehensive understanding
b. Reaching out to the most vulnerable– It has been observed in various disaster events that the population, mainly those situated in remote inaccessible locations (even during the normal time) are generally the most affected community. Reaching out to these communities pose a real threat and challenge to disaster respondents as these communities are under-represented in the baselines or even in preparedness phase
c. Effectiveness of Response is also sometimes a major hurdle. Essentials like sanitary napkins or plates/ glasses for provision of relief materials would not garner enough attention if the underlying baselines are not kept in mind while designing disaster response. Also observed are the cultural inappropriateness of the relief materials provided like blankets in coastal southern India that has a tropical climate
d. True capacity/ adaptive capacity of communities are difficult to measure. The robustness of resilient critical infrastructure can be put to test only during materialization of hazards. The developments in hazard science have enabled the understanding of maximum credible hazard.But the embedding of resilience in critical infrastructure still remains a challenge for disaster management.
e. Indigenous knowledge and its importance are yet to be completely realized. A shift away from the idea of vernacular or indigenous capabilities in resilience building is observed with changing dynamics. For instance, Banal Kotitype of earthquake resistant infrastructure in Uttarakhand state has given way to concrete structures utilizing state-of-the-art load bearing structures. The concrete/masonry structures have not generally been tested to real hazard scenarios.
6. Resources– the effectiveness of institutional mechanisms is dependent on the human resources that are part of the institutions. Technical expertise and Social science understanding is the key in Disaster Management. A multi-disciplinary approach to the vulnerability reduction measures and disaster risk reduction efforts would bring about effective results
a. Also ensuring that Disaster Management is process driven rather than people driven is a key requirement for sustenance of efforts towards DRR. The process must also be transparent, with accountability and responsibility tagged to the key personnel so that DRR efforts are effective and help in the reduction of future losses.
7. Frameworks for DM– Along with the National Disaster Management Policy, the National Disaster Management Plan and the respective state& district policies and plans, there must also be individual frameworks for each aspect of DM. Response, Recovery, Mitigation, Preparedness facets of DM would largely benefit with the knowledge of benchmarking best practices. Frameworks for post disaster rapid appraisals and needs/ damage/losses assessment would greatly enable swifter response thereby aiding disaster recovery.
a. Disaster Risk Governance must engrain the following principles:
§ Prioritizing Disaster Risk Management as a policy measure
§ Political commitment to be built for Disaster Risk management from a multi-disciplinary perspective
§ Accountability for losses/ damages due to disasters
§ Resource mobilization for disaster risk reduction measures
§ Effective implementation of DRR initiatives
§ Community participation
§ Gender Sensitivity
8. Implementations of Frameworks
a. Not only are frameworks important, the implementation of the same at the time of crisis is also important. The Incident Response System developed by the stalwarts of DM in India (NIDM, NDMA, MHA) is a prime tool for Disaster Response. The utilization of IRS would greatly help in efficient management of disaster response inspite of the convergence of personnel and materials post disaster, and would help in a coordinated effort towards alleviation of sufferings of the disaster affected community.
b. Post major disasters, a large influx of responding agencies are observed and the variety of responding agencies and individual agenda for response could lead to the duplication of efforts. These issues were recorded post the great Indian Ocean Tsunami and other major disasters like the Haiti earthquake. Frameworks/ Institutional set-up like the Incident Response System works towards negation of duplication of efforts and bring about greater coordinated efforts in post disaster response and recovery.
c. Issues pertaining to the Logistics of relief materials could also be resolved by proper implementation of the response framework in place. Specific Task forces could be utilized for each aspect of post-disaster response including rapid appraisal, sourcing of materials, transportation, inventory, storage and warehousing, last-mile connectivity and distribution
9. The Disaster Management plan must be synchronous to the District/ City Development plans. Each aspect of development would benefit from a disaster management perspective. This is important given India’s signatory to the Sendai Framework of Disaster Risk Reduction that has a target of new development not adding any disaster risk/ vulnerability
a. Likewise, the departments of the state involved in development must be aware of the disaster management practices including building codes, flood zonation etc. Ensuring new development are not built in defiance of existing codes, and updating or retro-fitment of old structures with updates in building codes or zonation would ensure greater effectiveness of DRR measures
b. The development plans and correspondingly the disaster management plans must be synchronous with the changing demography. The shift towards urbanization and the movement towards a “planet of slums”is a gross reality that must be accepted and worked upon. Rapid urbanization and a shift of population away from the villages towards cities give rise to new vulnerabilities that the nation had not witnessed before. Urbanization in rural sector and the resultant concretization is also building new forms of risk including risks like higher run off that leads to water flooding concerns.
10. The local body’s role in Disaster Management is very much essential. The vigilance and execution of DM measures in India are in the hands of local bodies. An effective end result of such responsibilities would be an outcome of aware and conscious group of stakeholders in the local bodies.
11. Standard Operating Procedures alone are not enough to ensure DRR measures. Continuous improvement in the SOPs is required. A robust set up for DM and corresponding robustness in the Plans, Policies and Procedures would greatly aid in reducing disaster risks
a. Evacuation Plans and Disaster Management Plans must also be put through tests frequently. Evacuation of people from a potential cyclone area into a school building that has not been built as per the cyclone resistant standards would grossly negate the evacuation efforts itself. Post Earthquake temporary resettlement of affected people is also a grave concern as the chosen site must be geo-morphologically stable as there are chances of aftershocks. The physical resettlement post earthquakes also poses hurdles as it could be difficult to convince people to shift to temporary settlements that are most basic when compared to the luxury of their homes that might have been devastated due to the earthquake
b. Maintenance of the levels of preparedness including the operational facilities and systems and functional equipment and supplies becomes a part of the SOP’s
12. Private investments in Disaster Risk Reduction measures have largely been unexplored. Through the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), there has recently been a shift towards private investment in Disaster Management. But there remains considerable scope for private players to assist in disaster mitigation and preparedness. Private investments are considerably high in disaster response and recovery measures presently.
13. A transition from relief centric approach to a proactive mitigation of disaster risk approach across the vertical and horizontal institutions for DM as well other departments of the State is vital
14. Learning from past disasters– Previous failures during disasters have to be recorded systematically and shortcomings and necessity for capacity developments identified so that similar failures do not occur in the future.
15. The half-life period of disaster events (or the time the community remembers about the event and its impact) would be higher in case of a severe catastrophic event. But for smaller impact events, community tends to forget the effects of the event and thereby a constant need for proactiveness from the administration in understanding the disaster risks and disseminating this information to the community is essential.
16. Acceptable risk and Public acceptance– Two levels of risk acceptance is possible-one for the administration and other for the public. Congruence is required between the two. The public must take a warning for Heat Wave from the administration seriously and necessary precautionary measures must be undertaken. This requires considerable efforts in risk communication mechanisms, understanding the risk profile, variations among risk perceptions and customized risk communication measures to better risk understanding and acceptance.
17. Economically backward districts especially face severe fund crunch in the investment in Disaster Management efforts. Proper planning and convergence of DM efforts and the development efforts would bring about significant improvements in DRR practice.
a. Monitoring and Evaluation of investments would greatly help in measuring effectiveness of investments.
b. Generating funding for response is also a major challenge for the remote areas affected by disasters. Lack of media coveragehinders with the sourcing of funding as generally funding/ donations are dependent on the extent and type of media coverage
18. Funding disaster response and recovery is preferred by donor agencies compared to funding for investment into mitigation. The lack of understanding of disaster risk adds to the problem with quantification of the effectiveness of funding interventions towards disaster risk mitigation. The investment decision on Disaster Risk Mitigation can be calculated effectively only post the materialization of the disaster event. With the quantification and corresponding justification of investment in disaster mitigation lying in the sphere of probability of occurrence of hazards, and the lack of baselines, it becomes difficult to compare the investment made on mitigation with the expenses incurred post Disaster in disaster response and recovery.
19. Technology acceptance and integration could be seen as a cross cutting challenge. Technology solutions are available and could be developed as per the needs. But the focus on appropriate technology and effectiveness of technology use for the purpose for which it has been put to use is key.
20. Remote sensing and Geospatial Information System is only as good as the information that is fed into the System. Only Remotely sensed data would miss out the social space where disasters affect. Measuring only social vulnerabilities would sometime amplify interventions required from DM perspectives.
21. A technology driven approach must not be disregarding the people’s/ commoner’s Rights and feelings. Civil society organizations and NGO’s could play a major role in the translation of requirements to technological output and the translation of technological capabilities into actionable risk consciousness building amongst the community.
22. Early Warning systems are still in the process of being designed and implemented in large parts of the nation. Though there has been considerable investment in early warning systems, there is a lot left to be achieved with respect to robust early warning systems capable of saving.
Haiti Earthquake – Case Study of the challenges in Disaster Management
On January 12, 2010, the 7.0 magnitude earthquake stuck Port Au Prince, the capital of Haiti. Final estimates report casualties of around 3,16,000 people and injury to about 3,00,000 Haitians. About 1.3 million people were dislocated from their homes. The net damage due to one of the worst earthquakes was about $11.5 billion.
Haiti is a poor and a densely populated developing nation in Caribbean region. An unemployment rate of 40% and per capita income of US $1,338 provides the backdrop of the condition of the country when the disastrous earthquake struck. The disasterbrought the globe’s attention towards Haiti. This resulted in about 20000 troops, about 20 ships and 130 aircrafts landing in Haiti from the neighboring United States of America. This inspite of the airports and harbors at Haiti rendered dysfunctional by the disastrous earthquake event, due to which logistics were channeled through Santo Dominigo. US air force took charge over the airport and there were allegations of prioritization of flights to and from US.
UN OCHA (The Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) recorded 505 INGOsand about 222 Haitian NGOs operating in Haiti post earthquake. Apart from the local government agencies and its military forces, United Nations agencies also landed in Haiti. Language was a major impediment and the lack of language skills or the availability of interpreters posed tremendous troubles for the foreign organizations that reached Haiti to participate in Disaster Response and Recovery operations after the earthquake. Initially communication happened only in English while Haiti is a French speaking nation. Local Haitian authorities and NGOs were left out of this communication channels. Further, the local authorities and NGOs had negligible experience in working with the military.
With this background it might be assumed that the extent of help rendered by international community in humanitarian response may have been fruitful for Haiti in speedy recovery, the major impediment to the recovery process was the lack of coordination. The language and the cultural differences played a major role in the coordination efforts. Duplication of efforts, materials and wastage were observed. Control or accountability mechanisms seemed absent. The lack of experience of certain responding agencies in dealing with the condition of developing nations, the lack of long term strategy and proper exit plans, and the lack of support infrastructure from the local government due to their capacity differences increased the load on the humanitarian responders. Though a lot of organizations and nations pledged funds for Haiti’s recovery post earthquake, due to such impediments many pledges were not fulfilled. Also it was observed that there were problems with the distribution of aid. Families were also observed to float between different camps to access food thereby making it difficult for assessing the exact number of beneficiaries.
Other hurdles like the absence of official titles for land, and the affected community’s opinion that they did not want the rubble/ debris removed without compensation or formalization of land titles. Even those with land titles faced issues due to loss of their documents in the rubble and even the land records department building also destroyed by the earthquake. Cholera infected roughly 6,48,000 people and about 8000 among them succumbed to the disease due to improper medical and healthcare facilities. Prior to the earthquake ,Haiti was a net rice-exporting nation, but after the earthquake the nation became a net rice importing country due to the cheap variety of rice pushed into Haiti as disaster aid from the US. This acted detrimental to the local rice industry.
The earthquake exposed the lack of preparedness in the country of Haiti and also exposed the short-sightedness of disaster response and recovery measures. The following challenges proved crucial to the situation of Haiti:
Low levels of Education Poverty
Political Instability
Excessive deforestation Lack of building codes
Lack of coordination amongst the responding agencies including INGOs
$1 Billion was provided to Haiti as debt forgiveness through the HIPC (Highly Indebted Poor Country Initiative) in 2009. Still, Haiti continued to be a poor nation and post the earthquake developed even more reliance on the external aid. This has resulted in a downward spiral. Given Haiti’s vulnerable location with respect to the Hurricanes, the earthquake has exposed and generated immense struggles for the recovery of the nation. The demographic dividend of a young population and the literacy rates among this segment, the lack of proper education resulted in the severe unemployment rates thereby adding to the downward spiral of the economy. The government did not promote seismic design and earthquake resistant buildings/ building code. This resulted in immense damage and loss of infrastructure, residential and commercial buildings. Haiti neither had adequate national building codes, nor trained human-power like Engineers, contractors or architects who could help promote earthquake resistant buildings. Community awareness and risk consciousness about earthquake hazard were largely missed out from the disaster management of Haiti. The poverty of Haitians resulted in buildings being built with whatever could be afforded. Buildings on slopes also were built without strong foundations or the necessary structural integrity. Reinforcement of load bearing structures was evidently absent.
Haiti last suffered a major earthquake in the year 1946 after which wooden and stone rubblework houses were promoted, but as the economy progressed and building materials were more available, and as wood became more expensive, the trend towards concrete and masonry without proper design occurred.
The political instability due to the previous governments contributed to weak economic status of Haitians and thereby affecting their capacities to prepare for and respond to disasters. It increased the vulnerability of the community and reduced Haiti’s ability to minimize the disaster risks. Without a stable government at the administration, political commitment to disaster risk mitigation and preparedness was weak.
Summary
Significant achievements have been made since the enactment of Disaster Management Act, 2005 in India. There are still formidable challenges ahead in pursuit of Disaster Risk Reduction. Multiple challenges emerge in Disaster Management that requires multi-disciplinary efforts towards understanding, analyzing, planning and implementation of risk reduction measures. A strong political will and a risk conscious civil society would help address a lot of the challenges in Disaster Management. An understanding of development and disaster linkages would greatly enhance a nation’s efforts towards reducing impacts of disasters and realizing goals of Disaster Risk Reduction.
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