Central America: Reducing natural disaster risks

US$24 million fund will finance emergency preparedness and response training.

By María Gabriela Córdova for Infosurhoy.com

Panama city – Central America is strengthening its emergency preparedness and response efforts in an attempt to save the hundreds of lives and billions of dollars lost to natural disasters each year.

Natural disasters caused losses of nearly US$2 billion in the region in 2011 and about US$1.624 billion in 2010, according to the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC). A total of 123 people lost their lives to natural disasters in 2011, down from 194 in 2010.

“Due to its geographic location, Central America has the world’s highest rates of natural geological, hydrometeorological and geodynamic hazards, which are reflected in the tropical storms, hurricanes, floods, erupting volcanoes and earthquakes in the region,” said Ricardo Mena, head of the Regional Office of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction.

To deal with this challenge, the Coordination Center for the Prevention of Natural Disasters in Central America (CEPREDENAC) created the Fund for the Promotion of Integrated Disaster Risk Management (FOCEGIR).

CEPREDENAC’s immediate goal is to launch a training program for six groups of first responders, known as the Central American Task Force.

The aim is to enable the groups to aid any Central American nation in fewer than six hours by providing immediate assistance if a natural disaster overwhelms the country’s response capabilities, said Arturo Alvarado, director general of the Panama Civil Protection System (SINAPROC) and president of CEPREDENAC.

“This fund will provide the resources we need to begin the program,” he said. “We don’t want to wait because disasters don’t give us any warnings. That’s why we have decided to speed up the process and set a goal of having the Central American Task Force created by Dec. 31.”

CEPREDENAC, which operates under the Central American Integration System (SICA), was established in 1987 to promote regional cooperation in dealing with natural disasters through first response agencies, as well as technical and scientific institutions.

FOCEGIR is funded through international cooperation and will complement the resources that Central American countries already have in their national disaster risk management policies.

The fund will provide US$24 million between 2012 and 2015 to assist Guatemala, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, Costa Rica and Panama.

“[Our aim is to] support the development of a comprehensive disaster risk management policy in Central America that will allow us to provide prevention education to the population, while the Civil Protection Service officials receive the training to respond quickly and appropriately to these disasters,” Alvarado said.

Risk management funding is focused on the following areas:

Investment risk reduction to ensure sustainable economic development, including construction in safe locations without endangering ecosystems or the ability to meet the needs of future generations;
Social compensation to reduce the vulnerability of the population, including the financial investments needed to train the population in preparing for natural disasters and the skills for overcoming poverty and social exclusion;
Studies on the effects of climate change;
Better land management by governments, i.e., establishing a balance between the social demands of the population and the government’s ability to meet those demands, while maintaining a focus on proper land use;
Disaster management and recovery.

“The lack of public investment and urban planning in all of the countries of Central America is a vulnerability that has resulted in poorly planned buildings in dangerous locations, such as on slopes, mountains or near rivers,” Alvarado said. “Because of this, we’re financing projects through FOCEGIR that are focused on reducing these risks.”

Official commitment

The establishing of disaster risk management funds reflects the commitment of government officials in Central America, Mena said.

“The creation of funds such as FOCEGIR, which are not for emergency expenses after the fact but to foster a culture of prevention, is a fundamental step in improving governmental preparedness for natural disasters that the effects of climate change are exacerbating,” he said.

Alvarado highlighted the importance of educating government officials and the population about the natural threats in their territories to determine the best ways to deal with them and provide warnings.

This effort includes initiatives aimed at establishing a culture of preparedness among residents at an early age.

For example, the various national Ministries of Education in Central America have planned to inspect the structural state of schools and carry out regular evacuation drills, Mena said.

They also are holding discussions on incorporating civil protection into educational curricula, which would be supported through FOCEGIR.