Disaster –view of professional perspective

[Assalamualaikum & salam sejahtera]

Disaster Risk Reduction or known as DRR is always develop from one to another. They learn from the previous experience of disaster. What the professional define it.  Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) measures are designed to protect livelihoods and the assets of communities and individuals from the impact of hazards.

Disaster only happen when all this terminology has occur. What it is?

A) Hazard - Hazards are potentially damaging physical events, phenomena or human activities which cause any or all of the following: the loss of life, injury, physical damage, environmental degradation, and social and economic disruption. Examples include both natural hazards such as floods, landslides, cyclones, earthquakes and volcanoes and man-made hazards such as inappropriate policies, accidents, war and conflict. These two classes of hazard are not mutually exclusive and often interact with each other.

B) Risk – Risk is probability and magnitude of the size of impact when there is event of hazard occur. The risk are proportional to hazard and vulnerability and disproportional to capacity.

C) Event – When the hazard already occur.

D) Impact – The impact of the event is when the event has contact to the community or people surround it.

E) Damage – When the impact are too large to handle, the impact caused damage.

F) Disaster – When the damage cannot be handle in that area, which required external sources, then we call it as disaster. If there is no need external resources, we just call it as event.

…we must shift from a culture of reaction to a culture of prevention…it is more humane… also much cheaper…

Kofi Annan, 1999

G) Prevention – any action taken to reduce the hazard by avoiding the hazard or safety precaution

H) Mitigation - reducing the frequency, scale, intensity and impact of hazards

I) Preparedness - strengthening the capacity of communities to withstand, respond to and recover from hazards, and of government, implementing partners.

J) Resilience - the ability of a system to absorb perturbations or stresses without changes in its fundamental structure or function that would drive the system into a different state (or extinction).

     i) Absorbing Capacity – anything that has ability to absorb the impact of event

    ii) Buffering Capacity – anything that being kept as support during the event/disaster

K) Response – any action after the event to reduce the damage when there is an event

L) Recovery Development – action taken to recover or restore better or at least to normal life of the damage after disaster.

Here are the example:

MERAPI ERUPTION 2010

A) In Yogyakarta, there is Mount Merapi which is one of the most active  volcano in the world.

B) There are thousands of people live within 3km from the summit of volcano.

C) On 26 October 2010, the Merapi erupt with such a great scale. Second eruption taken on 5th November 2010 with a greater scale.

D) The eruption produce volcanic ash and hot wave which has been flow to the residential area.

E) The hot wave can reach 600-1000°C with speed of 200-300  KM/hour   where living thing cannot withstand to the extreme heat. Volcanic ash rain to the nearby town and went to as far as 400KM from Merapi. There many  village totally damage with 250 people died due to Merapi eruption 2010.

F) In that case, there are 40 000-50 000 refugee required many essential living things to continue their life in the refugee camp. External sources required. There are many NGO’s from all over the country bring the donations and services for the refugee.

G) Merapi are going to be there forever. Some of them given an option to relocation to the safer place for example to the Kalimantan where there is no volcano there. 

H) Badan Nasional Penangunglangan Bencana (BNBP) has create mitigation plan. Mitigation Plans form the foundation for a community's  long-term strategy to reduce disaster losses and break the cycle of disaster damage, reconstruction, and repeated damage. The planning process is as important as the plan itself. It creates a framework for risk-based decision making to reduce damages to lives, property, and the economy from future disasters. Hazard mitigation is sustained action taken to reduce or eliminate long-term risk to people and their property from hazards. There is also called hazard mapping that can be consider as mitigation process.

I) National Volcanologist Agency has authority to determine the danger  zone of vocano. On the 24th October 2010, Dr Surono increase the level of volcano to “alert level 4” which mean that all people surround the Merapi should evacuate to out of 10KM danger zone. All hospital, government agencies and NGO are told to be ready for anytime of eruption.

J) i) Few years ago, in 2006, the eruption is not as such in 2010. Fortunately, the government already build a dam to facilitate the flow of lava in to the river and not to the residential area. The dam can stand till 75million cubic of lava.

J ii) Since Merapi eruption happen once in 3-5 years, the hospital already  prepared 10% extra of drugs to any related diseases due to Merapi eruption. This is as emergency buffer drug that might be required for the disaster.

K) Since the eruption happen, the disaster plan taken with many doctors are ready to deliver care to the victim in hospital. Refugee camp built as fast as they could for the refugee, All of these known as response.

L) After Merapi stop erupting, people are recover by develop the area again.

References:

1. Approach to Disaster Risk Reduction, September 2005

2. Kasperson, et al. (2002)

 

-tHaNk yOu-