Disasters and development

Since long there has been a constant evolution in the common understanding of disaster management. Various measures were taken to plan for emergency relief and management of a disastrous event. Despite all the efforts aimed at reducing the impact of hazards on mankind, very little progress was made. Loss of life, property, infrastructure and economic livelihoods are on the increase without any indication of improvement. Development activities could, in most instances, be blamed for the high level of disaster risk present in communities.

At the same time, very little progress has been made in the international arena to ensure a development focus on disaster risk. Despite the international, as well as national, focus on the prevention and mitigation of disasters, the continuous impact and increase in losses were a clear indication that something more than just pure disaster management should be undertaken.

Hazards can be natural, human induced or technological in nature, i.e. cyclone, flood, famine, earthquake. Hazards are not disasters, but are the potential causes for them. A disaster is a serious and sudden event on such a scale that the striken community needs extraordinary efforts to cope with it, often with outside help or international aid. It is a severe situation usually associated with severe damage to infrastructure and utilities, death, injuries, and homelessness.

A disaster can be best described as a possible outcome of hazards striking a vulnerable community element. Vulnerability means that elements are exposed to specific hazards and have a low level of resilience to cope with the impacts of that hazard (i.e. storm surge, tsunami, flood, earthquake, etc).

Risk describes the likelihood of harmful consequences arising from the interaction of hazards, vulnerable elements and the environment. Mitigation is the process of implementing measures that eliminate or significantly reduce the risks associated with the impact of potential hazards. Disaster management is the organization and management of resources and responsibilities for dealing with all aspects of emergencies, particularly in preparedness, response and rehabilitation.

Every year, one or more types of natural disasters occur in Bangladesh, causing heavy loss of life, property and infrastructure. Past experience shows that disaster relief activities and the few disaster-related plans were prepared at the highest level without having comprehensive information about the disaster on the ground, i.e., at the local level.

Therefore, in many cases, the post-disaster relief and rehabilitation activities that were designed reflected neither the physical reality nor the needs expressed by the victims. At the same time, with limited trained human and financial resources, implemented activities were grossly inadequate and ineffective. Disasters cause economic damage to the tune of several billion dollars every year in Bangladesh.

In a developing country like Bangladesh, many development plans are poorly prepared at the central level without consulting the local communities and representing the needs of the target communities. Such development plans are not only unsustainable, but are also expensive and create a negative perception in the local communities towards development activities. Such flawed development initiatives in many areas of Bangladesh have created disasters or hazards such as the breach of irrigation channels, building constructed in vulnerable areas, poor housing plans, etc.

Due to flawed disaster management, the ratio of people killed to affected population in Bangladesh is not negligible. The challenge of coping with disasters, and the need to integrate disaster reduction into sustainable development planning, must number among the major concerns. Natural disasters result in loss of lives, serious economic damage and severe impacts on the social conditions. However, natural disasters have received very little consideration in development policies, especially policies towards alleviating poverty.

All our efforts for disaster management in Bangladesh are run on an ad-hoc basis without thinking about their sustainability and long term impact to the local community. Moreover, such efforts were mostly concentrated on post disaster activities such as relief and rescue. Such post disaster activities were also done in isolation without consulting the target communities and authorities at the disaster sites.

There is a great possibility for linking disasters to development initiatives, and a variety of development activities can be implemented through a disaster mitigation initiative. It is an irony that, despite the knowledge of this reality, all the development actors (government, NGOs and development partners) have been dealing with disasters in isolation. Therefore, many development activities have been seriously disrupted or rendered non-functional by different natural disasters in the country.

In recent years the development community has been making the links between disasters and development. Disasters can impede the effectiveness of development resource allocation. Disasters have a particularly destructive economic impact in areas in which there are few replacements for assets that are destroyed, or in areas in which the resources are already at critical levels. Development processes can both increase or decrease the vulnerability of a society to hazards. There are clearly established linkages between poverty, marginalization, over-population, and vulnerability. To a large extent, vulnerability derives from poverty. The poor are more likely to live in vulnerable areas, have difficulty accessing education and information, have fewer assets to invest in resources to reduce vulnerability, and are more prone to becoming malnourished and have chronic illnesses that predispose them to injury and death.

Development may be associated with the production of new hazards accepted by a society because the perceived benefits of the development project far exceed the relative risk associated with the project. It is now widely recognized that the most likely solution to disaster problems is the implementation of successful development projects towards vulnerability, risk reduction, environmental management and sustainable livelihoods.

Partnership is another area which has been largely ignored in disaster management in many countries. Partnership in disaster management is much more needed than anything else. Many disaster experts know that a single institution cannot make a significant change or improvement during any disaster .

Despite this reality, none of the development activities implemented by either governmental or any non-governmental, or any development initiatives in Bangladesh, tried to link disaster to development. Therefore, many development activities have been suffering from natural disasters in Bangladesh adding additional financial burden to the ailing economy of the country. This clearly indicates that there is a great potentiality for linking disaster to development in a disaster prone developing country like Bangladesh.

Training and education are of critical importance in preventing increased vulnerability as a result of development strategies. Development also can progress in a manner that will result in mitigation of the impacts of an event on a given society. Such mitigation measures can be either structural or nonstructural.

There exists a wide range of options for incorporating mitigation measures in development projects. Proper coordination is always a challenge within the government and in many cases, between government and NGOs. The sustainable disaster management activities in a disaster prone country like Bangladesh should be integrated or holistic in nature, and disasters should not be dealt with in isolation.

Linking disaster to development shows some hope for both, sustainable disaster management and development in the country. However, to make the development much more sustainable and development that bears fruits to all actors, the disaster management activities must be integrated. A clear road map on how disaster will be linked to development should be sketched before hand to guide the actors and the community. So, limited resources will be utilized for maximum benefit and the plan will be successful.

Khan Ferdousour Rahman is a freelance contributor to The Daily Star.