"Why
didn’t we know?"
Seldom has a single question echoed in so many languages around
the world as after the tsunami of the 26 December last year.
As we commemorate six months since the worst natural disaster
of modern times, survivors, governments and aid agencies are
still coming to terms with an enormously complex emergency.
Just this month, we heard with dismay and trepidation the news
from leading seismologists that other major earthquakes could
spark tsunamis in the same region. An anxious world waits with
feelings that go beyond borders and nationalities – feelings
of grief, frustration, anger and despair. Disaster preparedness
professionals share these feelings because lives undoubtedly
could have been saved through better risk reduction measures.
It is this painful insight that forces survivors to keep asking
why they didn’t know, why they were not prepared. The
main reason is because the investment - relatively little compared
with the vast amounts now required to repair the damage –
was simply not there. As an unprecedented outpouring of generosity
from donors around the world has provided assistance to millions
of tsunami-affected people, many of us felt a greater sense
of frustration as a fraction of this money could have saved
many lives.
The right, not only to information in times of natural disasters,
but also of how to better prepare needs to be addressed if lives
are to be saved in the future.
Disasters strike in different ways and at different times, but
when they occur, people in the affected communities will be
the ones who undertake the immediate response and provide emergency
relief to others. Therefore, it is vital that they know what
to do and have reasonable resources to cope with emergency situations.
Nevertheless, the vital task of saving lives must start earlier,
through identifying risks such as the people, buildings and
facilities that are vulnerable to disaster.
The international debate and action to develop early warning
systems in the aftermath of the tsunami disaster is welcome,
as it increases public awareness of the importance of disaster
preparedness. Even so, the tendency to focus on satellite technology
and telecommunications risks overshadowing the key to successful
disaster preparedness – the people living in high risk
areas themselves.
All too often those for whom disaster warning systems are designed
have little faith in the warnings. This may be due to a human
inclination to ignore what appears inconvenient at the time,
to a general misunderstanding of the warning system, or frustration
with yet another false alarm. Still it underlines the importance
of an early warning system being people-centred and community-based.
The knowledge, skills and capacities of people in disaster-prone
areas should be understood, valued and built upon.
We must also ensure that the warning systems being put in place
are designed for a variety of hazards, not just for the rarer
tsunami events, but importantly for the more frequent floods,
typhoons, droughts, landslides and epidemics – the easily
forgotten disasters – that erode the social and economic
well being of an estimated 255 million people annually. These
people have a right to know.
Many of these disasters can be prepared for and, when they do
strike, managed. This is well proven in disaster-prone countries,
including Indonesia, where over 100 such disasters have occurred
over the last three years. Most of these did not make headlines,
though they did wreck lives.
In Bangladesh, the Red Crescent has long invested in cyclone
preparedness. In Vietnam, Red Cross public awareness campaigns
have informed hundreds of thousands of primary school children
and families how best to behave when floods strike. Research
shows us that in disaster-prone areas, good training, planning
and evacuation rehearsals, along with some basic equipment can
be the difference between life and death.
We will never be able to stop natural disasters from occurring
but we can do much more to reduce the risk to vulnerable communities
that lie in their path. Resources in advance of a disaster will
cost us much less than efforts to repair damage later and no
effort should be spared to save every life possible.
Ian Wilderspin
Head of Disaster Risk Management Unit (DRMU)
Southeast Asia Regional Delegation
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
Ian has been the Head of the DRMU of the Federation for the
past three years. For four years prior to this, he was the Federation
Disaster Preparedness Delegate in Vietnam. Before joining the
Federation, Ian worked with Oxfam GB and Save the Children Fund
(UK) for over four years and has field experience in Pakistan,
Afghanistan, northern Iraq, Sudan, Vietnam and Thailand.
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Wilderspin, Head of Disaster Risk Management Unit
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