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Southern Africa: Focus on disaster mitigation

UNITED NATIONS
Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Integrated Regional Information Network (IRIN)
[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations]

JOHANNESBURG, 9 October (IRIN) - Simple measures like fixing roofs in windy cities and cracking down on littering to keep storm drains clear can make the difference between a routine storm and a national disaster, a disaster mitigation expert told IRIN this week.

"We mustn't just be prepared to respond with helicopters when something goes wrong, we must have plans to prevent disasters," said Aisla Holloway, director of the Disaster Mitigation Unit of South Africa's University of Cape Town.

The international community marks International Day for the Reduction of Natural Disasters on Wednesday, which aims to increase worldwide awareness about measures that can be taken to reduce the vulnerability of communities to natural hazards.

"Rainfall and floods are absolutely normal, but now we have flood risks in areas that would not have flooded in the past. We have changed our lifestyles and the way we live with natural phenomena," Holloway said.

A seemingly insignificant move like paving over an area normally grassed, to save the time and energy needed for mowing, could alter the way a region responds to heavy rainfall. "Previously the rain would have soaked naturally into the earth, but the paving prevents that. And concrete speeds up water flow, increasing the risk of floods," Holloway explained.

Coming to the defence of communities who farm on fertile flood plains such as in Mozambique's Zambezi valley, she said farming close to rivers was an ancient and successful method. Communities moved to higher and lower ground with the ebb and flow of the rivers.

"The problems start when people start damming up rivers and they get out of the habit of moving with the river and lose their seasonal rhythm. Then engineers open floodgates upstream," she noted, as in the case of Mozambique's flood disaster in 2001.

"Living on a flood plain is not the problem, you've got to know how to live with it," said Holloway. "If you don't invest in mitigation and prevention you're going to have serious problems. People usually have to live through three or four serious disasters to realise this is necessary."

Holloway said one of the greatest problems facing disaster mitigation was that there were often no visible returns to show from the investment. She added that while much media attention was paid to "sensational" disasters like floods, more attention needed to be focused on recurring disasters like fires in informal settlements.

"These happen about 10 times a year, but little attention is paid to them," she said.

Holloway said that positive disaster prevention moves in the region included South Africa's introduction of a Disaster Management Bill. The bill aims at a high state of emergency preparedness, and a rapid and effective response to disasters across the country. It also provides for the creation of national, provincial and municipal disaster management centres.

MOZAMBIQUE'S EXPERIENCE

Mozambique has been particularly hard hit by floods and cyclones over the last few years. Its neighbours responded by providing the rescue helicopters and logistical aid the struggling post-war country could not afford.

Yohannes Giorgis of the Mozambican government's disaster management institute said: "We have learned lessons over the past two or three years. We have learned to organise seminars and workshops and mitigate some of the impact of disasters.

"Mozambique conducts a yearly contingency plan based on [regional weather] forecasts and puts plans into place for mitigation and better coordination. Last year we coordinated our response to floods much better than the year before."

Giorgis said campaigns were running in the flood plains to make people aware of the risks they faced. But, frustratingly, despite the warnings people were often reluctant to leave their homes and move to higher ground.

He said the institute was also working towards the coordination of better flood gate management of the region's dams. Zimbabwe, South Africa, Swaziland and Zambia all share rivers with Mozambique and were working on addressing issues of managing their flow.

"We've been hurt so badly in the past couple of years, that we've learned from it and are reacting in a progressive manner," he told IRIN.

REGIONAL INITIATIVES

Many joint initiatves such as a Strategy on Floods and Droughts within the Southern African Development Community (SADC) have also helped alleviate the effect of floods in the region.

According to a SADC report, in the Zambezi valley specifically, cooperation between the Kariba Dam operators (the joint Zambia and Zimbabwe Zambezi River Authority) and Mozambique's Cahora Bassa Dam company played an important role in reducing the extent of the impact of floods and helped control them.

The drought in Zimbabwe and the EL Nino was another development that SADC's regional early warning system was currently monitoring closely, said Kennedy Masamvu, an agro-meteorologist with SADC's early warning unit. He said information gathered and presented to the relevant authorities on two poor crops in a row in Zimbabwe had led to the current response by government and aid agencies to provide urgent food relief.

In anticipation of EL Nino's effect - current predictions are that it will be mild - on next year's harvests, Masamvu said information was filtering down to farmers that it would be wise to consider the early planting of fast maturing crops for next year.

In line with year's theme for the International Day for the Reduction of Natural Disasters, protection of vulnerable mountain communities, Lesotho's Disaster Management Authorities (LDMA) are about to embark on a large workshop to better handle the country's annual heavy snowfalls.

LDMA head Peter Khomonnuoe said the focal point of the workshop would be how to protect the shepherds who become stranded in remote regions during heavy snowfalls, sapping resources that could otherwise be redirected to relieving whole villages.

Proposals include a government decree ordering shepherds and their cattle down from the mountains a month before predicted snowfalls. This would be accompanied by an order to grow cattle fodder ahead of the snow season, to prevent the livestock losses that ultimately impact on families' food security, he said.

For more information: http://www.unisdr.org/

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