Who shares the responsibility to reduce our communities’ exposure to the impact of disasters?

By Mr. Adesh Tripathe

Currently, a person waking up in Indonesia is jittery over volcanic activity as is a Vanuatuan. More than 40 million flood-affected people in South Asia are going to sleep without permanent shelter after one of its worst monsoon seasons in recent history. In Southeast Asia, people are dealing with the fallout after typhoons and storms.

Natural disasters have infamously shown favor to the Asia-Pacific region. A child, a woman, an older person, a person living with disabilities or a man living in Asia-Pacific is four times more likely to be hit by a catastrophe compared to someone living in Africa. The risk surges to 25 times higher compared to a resident in Europe or North America. These statistics from the United Nations are no less sobering when we consider these facts: the Asia-Pacific region lost two million lives and its economies US$1.3 trillion between 1970 and 2016, according to the UN Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2017.

As we mark the International Day for Disaster Reduction, designated by the United Nations on October 13, we are reminded that we are all responsible for reducing the risks and the number of people affected by natural disasters. The tagline of this year, “Home Safe Home”, makes it clear that a home saved is a family saved from displacement, poverty, injury and ill health. This is close to the heart of Habitat for Humanity’s work in disaster response. Each effort is an opportunity to build back safer, manage risks and build resilience to disasters. Habitat for Humanity’s “Pathways to Permanence” approach helps to reduce the vulnerability of disaster-affected families and communities by supporting them in making incremental progress toward permanent, durable shelter and settlements. An approach, it is using to assist families affected by recent monsoon floods in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. The South Asia Flood response project includes a three-phase response of emergency relief, recovery, and reconstruction for long-term housing solutions and safe shelter.

The poor and vulnerable, who already bear the brunt of disasters because they tend to live in hazard-prone locations and less resilient shelter, particularly need to lessen their exposure to disasters. They may survive a disaster but the blow could push them over the edge of poverty into extreme hardship. While many organizations still strive to help these affected families get back on their feet, there is an urgent need to prevent them from being hit by such risks in the first place.

This is where partnerships, policies and technology play a part. Various partners and stakeholders need to coordinate resources, cooperate and collaborate in reducing disaster risks and the number of people affected. This is borne out by Habitat for Humanity’s own experience in disaster response and risk reduction over 20 years, 16 of which in the Asia-Pacific region. To date, Habitat has helped more than 230,000 families in 52 countries through its disaster response work.

Major disasters can severely set back developmental progress. Former Nepali Prime Minister, Sushil Koirila said the April 25, 2015 earthquake and aftershocks reversed the country’s development gains achieved over the years. The disaster also wiped out the equivalent of a third of Nepal’s gross domestic product. It has been said that natural disasters know no borders. Instead of being deterred, governments and the private sector must be relentless in their pursuit of safe and disaster-ready homes, and resilient families and communities. Many have recognized that risk reduction is best achieved by avoiding the creation of these risks in the first place. Yet, we acknowledge the factors that contribute to such disaster risks still exist. Each day, 120,000 people are making their way to the cities amid rapid urbanization. Some 400 million people are still living in extreme income poverty. Climate change is a phrase much bandied, less understood but with its effects widely felt.

We cannot block every blow dealt by disasters but we can help individuals, families and communities to get back on their feet and recover sooner. Building back safer makes sense. A family living in a safe, disaster-ready house is less vulnerable to losing their lives and assets the next time a disaster strikes. They can also avoid being displaced or suffering ill health or falling into extreme poverty. That same family is better able to recover more quickly from the debilitating effects of a disaster.

Disaster resilience can only be sustainable when this process is owned and managed by the communities themselves. Habitat for Humanity drew the lesson in its responses to the 2015 earthquakes in Nepal and the 2016 Cyclone Winston in Fiji. Local communities in eastern Nepal who have been trained in the Participatory Approach to Safe Shelter Awareness were among the first to respond by cleaning up areas affected by the monsoon floods in August.

Secondly, governments need to exercise the political will by creating or aligning policies to facilitate the construction of safe, disaster-resilient houses and communities. This is so crucial that the World Bank Group has devoted a series of discussions on identifying opportunities for policymakers to make housing more affordable and disaster-resilient especially for those living in poverty.

In addition, technology can play a key role. The deadly 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami underlined the importance of early warning. Since then, improved early warning of disasters and knowledge transfer between Asia-Pacific countries have helped to save lives and homes. There are limitations, however, as senior officials conceded at an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum for disaster management held in September in Vietnam. While sending an early warning through text messages works for typhoon-prone Philippines, Vietnam’s limited mobile network coverage makes it harder to implement the system. At the individual’s level, social media and mobile apps can make people more informed about risks. Hazard-prone locations can be shared via WhatsApp or Google Map. Facebook’s Disaster Maps, developed with the users’ locations and movements and “Checking in Safe” data, can be shared with humanitarian agencies to facilitate more efficient responses.

Everyone, that is, you and me, have a responsibility to reduce our communities’ exposure to disaster impacts. Saved from the effects of disasters, people can walk steadier and hold their heads higher to greet a world that is free of poverty, protective of the planet and prosperous for all by 2030.