DISASTER PREVENTION

The United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) defines disaster prevention as “activities to provide outright avoidance of the adverse impacts of hazards and means to minimise related environmental, technological, and biological disasters. Depending on social and technical feasibility and cost/benefit considerations, investing in preventive measures is justified, particularly in areas frequently affected by disasters. In the context of public awareness and education, related to disaster risk reduction, changing attitudes and behaviour contribute to creating a “culture of prevention.”
Preparedness includes measures taken to ensure readiness of the administrative apparatus to respond quickly and efficiently to a disaster in order to minimise the loss to life and property. Disaster preparedness and prevention require policy and resources for the purpose. Pertinent questions to be asked in this regard include:

What is disaster prevention? What does it mean to us and should we invest effort in its application? If the answer is “yes”, then what needs to be done, and how is it to be translated into policy and action? In order to address these questions, the government would need to allocate resources for disaster management, which would envelop the aforesaid concerns.

SIGNIFICANCE OF DISASTER PREVENTION

The continued effects of disasters (man-made and natural) are all too evident to be overlooked. Recent events alone include the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina in America, Tsunami destruction in South Asia and the recent Earthquake in Pakistan and India, as well as the so-called complex political emergencies (CPE) in Iraq, Afghanistan and Sudan. Such incidences command large- scale emergency response, the arena in which humanitarian agencies have the highest profile. Such events also raise retrospective questions, such as, whether anything could have been done to prevent or reduce the scale of such disasters. In the case of CPE, prevention requires the political will of all those directly involved and able to influence the course of events. For natural disasters, efforts can be directed at reducing the scale of lives lost and property destroyed.

In the last two decades, reducing risk through the implementation of disaster preparedness and prevention measures has been gaining ground. The UN named the decade of the 90’s as the “International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction (IDNDR).” Whilst the success of the IDNDR is believed by many to have been muted through lack of interest and limited funds, organisations including the European Union, World Bank, DFID, UN and USAID (OFDA) are all investing resources in disaster prevention. Regarding International NGOs; IFRC leads, assigning disaster preparedness delegates to several country teams. Several NGO networks also exist, including the La Red in Latin America, ADRRN in Asia and a new network funded by DFID in sub-saharan Africa. In addition, local NGOs and specialist centers such as SEEDS and ADRC are known for implementing DPP (Disaster Prevention Planning) training and research.
The message inherent in these initiatives is the growing acceptance and action towards the same by many key players in the international aid business that more can and must be done to prevent and/or mitigate the impact of disasters to reduce the risks to vulnerable communities.
To foster a common understanding of the concept of DPP, it is worth looking briefly at what disaster mitigation and preparedness are. A disaster happens when a “hazard” (earthquake, flood, drought, fighting, etc) coincides with a “vulnerable” situation (cities or villages in earthquake/flood prone zones, impoverished people, etc). This is often written as:
Disaster = Hazard + Vulnerability.
Without the coincidence of both these conditions, a disaster would not occur (a hurricane at sea affects nobody, volcanic activity in Hawaii is a tourist spectacle). What this means therefore, is that development actions need to be targeted at reducing vulnerabilities, which are social, physical and economic in nature, incident amongst the most vulnerable, which are the poorest communities in society.
Disaster prevention is analogous to preventive health care. Whilst most efforts are directed towards post -disaster relief, reconstruction and rehabilitation (where the need is all too visible), prevention is often the ignored stage of the cycle of 2

disaster (the ‘invisible’ side to disaster). There is often little interest or political will to take measures for preparation for a disaster that hasn’t happened yet. Yet of course failures to address this can result in enormous losses of life and livelihoods.

ISSUES INVOLVED IN DISASTER PREVENTION

Disaster Prevention therefore implies the protective and preventive actions taken prior to a disaster, directed towards the reduction of risk and the effects of the hazard, that is, the actions that impede the occurrence of a disaster event and prevent and reduce the harmful effects of the event on communities and key installations. Constructing a dam or a levee (embankment) to control floods is an example of a preventive measure. Preventive Measures may include:
􀂄 Structural Measures: Engineering or Technical Inputs

􀂄 Non- Structural Measures: Administrative and Managerial Inputs

HAZARD MAPPING FOR DISASTER PREVENTION

Hazard mapping is explained as “the process of establishing geographically, where and to what extent, particular phenomena are likely to pose a threat to people, property, infrastructure, and economic activities. Hazard mapping represents the result of hazard assessment on a map, showing the frequency or probability of occurrences of various magnitudes or occurrences”(DMTP, 1994).
Two parameters are used in hazard maps, event parameter (intensity of the hazard), and site parameter (physical characteristics of the area), since the physical characteristics of the area with respect to that particular hazard determine the extent of losses that would be suffered in the event of an actual disaster. Event parameters give the nature of the hazard and site parameters give the impact that is likely in the event of a disaster.

A flood hazard map will show the maximum impact of floods with different return periods superimposed on each other. This would give the probability of occurrence along with the likely impact in different geographical settings.
A volcanic hazard map will give areas of variable risk, though it is comparatively difficult to quantify volcanic hazard than other hazards. Areas closest to the summit are permanently prohibited for habitation. Areas around a certain diameter, for example, 20 km. are subject to pyroclastic (airborne volcanic debris) surges and lahars (lava flows), which are subject to evacuation during eruptions. Parts of lower slopes, which are possible mud flow paths; since satellite imagery has made it possible to trace mud- flow paths based on observation through remote sensing and past data analysis, are second danger areas.
The critical factor in the preparation of maps is availability of data pertaining to past events with a view to preparing databases. Knowledge regarding spatial distribution of some natural hazards, namely, earthquakes, floods and droughts is now so advanced that it has been possible to account for minor variations in involved variables like area or population ‘at risk’. Hence, it has been possible to prepare micro-zonation maps, which give detailed information about the susceptibility of different areas at risk from these hazards, even in case of multi-hazard vulnerability of a given area.
According to Odaka (2002), the objective of a hazard map is to provide residents with information about the range of possible damage and the disaster prevention