It goes without saying that the work of the Commission on Sustainable
Development is central to the work of the international community
in support of the achievement of the UN Millennium Declaration
and the associated Development Goals.
This is true of all aspects of the Commission's agenda, but
nowhere is it clearer than in the items which relate to natural
disaster and the need for the water and sanitation bases of
life itself.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Cross Societies
has touched on this core point in many of its presentations
to multilateral and other fora.
It was also a key issue in our work at the important Mauritius
International Meeting on Small Island Developing States in January
2005.
It was further developed within our community preparedness priorities
at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Hyogo
in the same month, and will be refined further when the Economic
and Social Council meets in New York in July.
At this session of the Commission, we will concentrate on prevention
and response elements, taking water and sanitation actions as
the basic case examples for our message.
(a) Impact
For those that survive natural disasters, the most common threat
to their continued survival is the need to provide or re-establish
access to the most basic of needs.
Disasters frequently damage or even destroy basic infrastructure
such as water supplies, sewerage systems, waste collection systems,
homes and institutions. Life is no longer normal for those affected,
and in addition the combination of loss of family and friends,
loss of homes and livelihood causes extreme trauma.
Our experience, and that of others, shows that the access to
safe water, sanitation and shelter are three of the key requirements
post-disaster. This is not only to ensure health and wellbeing,
but also to restore some degree of normalcy and dignity to the
survivors. It also mitigates post-disaster physical and psychological
suffering.
Water:
Lack of water primarily for drinking and cooking can cause immediate
stress, and may lead to social unrest if such access is denied.
If water is available it must be safe, if polluted or contaminated
it can soon lead to disease, epidemic & death. Water is also
needed for bathing and maintaining hygiene. It is also crucial
for health centres, feeding centres, schools and other institutions.
Sanitation:
Sanitation facilities, primarily for safe disposal of excreta
and other waste, are essential for the reduction of the risk
of disease and disease vectors. Sanitation facilities must be
easy to access, have adequate security and privacy. There must
be strong public awareness of their availability.
Habitation/Shelter:
Shelter from the elements by provision of simple and adequate
buildings can also provide security and privacy. Shelter also
facilitates the reuniting of families and friends, and is important
to the restoration of a degree of normalcy to the lives of the
people themselves. It is one of the most important psychological
factors after a disaster.
Therefore, the conclusion is that without adequate water, sanitation
and shelter, disaster affected populations are prone to physical
and psychological stress, disease and death. Prompt and adequate
measures must be taken immediately post-disaster to provide
these most basic needs.
(b) Response to Natural Disasters:
Post disaster morbidity and mortality, if to be contained at
all, requires prompt and appropriate response from every avenue
to provide or restore basic infrastructure. This response needs
to come from the population itself, the population surrounding
the affected area, Government and local or international civil
society, UN and other international humanitarian bodies, military
authorities and the private sector.
There must be an integrated effort, built around a strategically
set series of partnerships in recognition of the size and complexity
of the challenge. There are several important groupings which
need to be taken into account:
Response Capacity within the community:
Awareness of the risks in any particular area is the first step
to mobilising potential at community level. Red Cross & Red
Crescent Societies with support from their International Federation
are increasingly using awareness raising as a means to prepare
communities better.
An increasingly used set of tools for this are Vulnerability
and Capacity Assessments (VCA). VCA is a participatory means
of assisting communities to identify risks and prepare response
mechanisms. A key factor is the role of the Red Cross or Red
Crescent volunteers at this level who are often members of the
communities at risk.
As part of normal Red Cross and Red Crescent activities at the
community level, training is given to volunteers in VCA and
risk mapping and training in skills such as water disinfection,
latrine construction, first aid, shelter construction. There
is also other specific training, dependent on the needs of the
community in question.
An essential part of VCA and related training is that it is
provided within the requirements of the Red Cross Red Crescent
fundamental principles - without discrimination of any kind.
We have made it clear in other UN debates, for example in the
Commission on Human Rights, that our work against discrimination
has as one of its key objectives effective work for sustainable
development and in support of disaster preparedness, prevention
and response.
Response Capacity at Local/National Level:
Leading from the above first level of engagement, Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies are in a position, as auxiliaries
to the public authorities in the humanitarian field, to engage
with the authorities at all levels to ensure that community
preparedness is matched by Government potential to support them,
particularly in coordination of disaster response and in providing
resources appropriate to the disaster.
This is enhanced where National Red Cross & Red Crescent Societies
are part of national disaster management and coordination bodies.
Governments have several times agreed that these bodies should
include their National Society. There is now strong evidence
to show that this involvement makes a significant difference
for the better when disasters strike, and it is our hope that
bodies like this Commission will add their voice to the call
for the redoubling of effort in this direction.
Response capacity at Regional/International Level:
The International Federation recognises that awareness and skills
training conducted at the community and local/National levels
needs to be mirrored at regional level to be fully effective.
We operate at that level through the formation of Regional Disaster
Response Teams (RDRT). These bring together Red Cross and Red
Crescent staff and volunteers and Federation staff and Delegates,
and provide a capacity through joint training and program coherence
to respond to larger and more complex disasters.
Our capacity also extends to coordination at a global level
when necessary, bringing together the combined capacities, human,
material and financial from the 181 Red Cross and Red Crescent
National Societies, under the International Federation's umbrella,
to respond effectively. It is this capacity which is receiving
so much international attention in the current response to the
Asian earthquake and tsunami disaster.
It is also this capacity which makes our ten-year Global Water
and Sanitation Initiative (GWSI) such an important contribution
to future work in this area and in support of the Millennium
Development Goals. Apart from its contribution the building
of local coping capacity, it will help communities establish
much more effective coping mechanisms to deal with the acute
water and sanitation challenges which so often follow natural
disasters.
At all levels, we stress the importance of work on water and
sanitation priorities. This is why our immediate response capacity,
delivered through trained teams of Red Cross and Red Crescent
specialists within special-purpose Emergency Response Units
include groups with special expertise in water and sanitation.
The tsunami disaster was followed by the immediate despatch
of 7 Water and Sanitation ERUs, providing safe water to over
100,000 people.
(c) Prevention of Natural Disasters:
As with response above, prevention measures need to be tackled
at three levels:
Prevention within the community:
Awareness of the risks is the first step to prevention. The
VCA approach is an opportunity to introduce measures that can
be taken by the community and which are relevant to that community's
own situation and risk. Bangladesh is a good example of where
this has worked well, through building embankments to redirect
flooding, protection of the environment to reduce silting, building
houses on higher elevations, and more.
This effort, to be successful, can require the active involvement
of large numbers of community volunteers. Our Red Cross Red
Crescent Movement is famous for its volunteer base, and we are
working hard in other fora, including the Commission on Social
Development, to ensure that there is full recognition of its
value and no obstacles to its growth and strength.
Prevention at Local/National Level:
Leading from the above first level of engagement, Red Cross
and Red Crescent Societies are able, as auxiliaries to the public
authorities in the humanitarian field, to engage with local
and national authorities to plan prevention and risk reduction
initiatives.
This works best when it is initiated through national disaster
management bodies, for it leads to initiatives planned across
the whole geography of regions likely to be affected by disasters.
It brings national resources into disaster preparedness work
coherently, and ensures that national legislation and executive
action supports the needs of the local communities.
At community and national levels, there is a continuing need
for education and public awareness to strengthen understandings
of the importance of water and sanitation. At the same time,
governments and concerned international organisations should
build their own programs to ensure that water and sanitation
is planned and provided as a fundamental human requirement.
Prevention at Regional/International Levels:
Good national planning and preparation is of great benefit to
effective international action. It benefits other organisations
- the relationship of the World Food Programme to the Bangladesh
Red Crescent Society is a case in point - but it also benefits
international coordination when there is a national plan in
place which can be activated as soon as disaster strikes.
Action in Iran after the Bam earthquake was swift and effective,
in large part because of the existence of a strong community-involved
plan in Iran which involved the Red Crescent Society and its
community volunteers.
The inexorable conclusion from this short analysis is that measures
to address the impact of natural disasters, through prevention
and response, must be applied at all levels if they are to be
successful. They must also be applied with the involvement and
support of the local communities themselves.
The involvement of communities will highlight the needs which
the people themselves hold at the top of their own priority
lists - this ordinarily and naturally means safe water and sanitation.
The International Federation will continue to emphasise this
point at all levels in these debates, for it is the essential
underpinning for any work towards the safety, stability, sustainable
development and prosperity of communities and nations.
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