Disaster Management

What is a disaster?

• Any event(s), natural or man-made, sudden or progressive which impact(s) in such a magnitude that the affected individual, community or nation has to respond by taking exceptional measures outside the affected area.
• It therefore creates the need for external assistance.

• Natural disasters
• Man-made disasters
• Complex or Compound Disasters

Natural disasters

• Floods e.g. flash floods, tidal waves, tsunami
• Storms e.g.
• Water-based:
• Typhoons
• Cyclones
• Hurricanes
• Land-based:
• Rainstorm
• Dust storm
• Sandstorm
• Tornadoes
• Volcanic eruptions
• Glowing clouds
• Landslides
• Mud slide
• Coastal erosion.
• Earthquakes
• Droughts and famine.
• Epidemics
• Insect infestation.

Man-made disasters

• Sudden e.g. gas & nuclear explosions, plane crash, oil spilt, fires, domestic building collapse, RTAs, boat mishaps
• Insidious and continuing e.g. chemical & radiation exposure, global warming
• Wars and Civil conflicts, Terrorism, Cultism, Gang robberies

Complex or Compound Disasters

• Often influenced by intense political undercurrents
• Leads to international and cross border complexities
• Social and ideological considerations
• Include but not limited to insurgency, wars, terrorism, hostage taking
• Disaster upon disaster

Peculiarities

• Large Populations (About 200 million in Nigeria alone)
• Topography ranges from lowland along the coastal areas of the Atlantic Ocean and Rivers Niger and Benue valley to high plateaus in the deserts of the north and mountains eastern borders up to and including Cameroon
• Relatively weak economy
• Under protected and expansive environments
• Main disaster types in the sub–region are
• Floods
• Droughts
• Oil spills
• Bush fires
• Massive RTAs
• Plane crashes
• Boat mishaps
• Ethno religious clashes
• Explosions
• Insurgency
• Wars

Flood

• At least 20% population at risk
• Residents mostly farmers & fishermen and in Benue & Niger trough, costal reg. and pastoralists in Central and Northern parts of the subregion.
• Hundreds of people are killed annually
• Millions of dollars and properties damaged annually

Oil spill

• Caused by tanker break up at sea, illegal discharges and bunkering, tanker clean- up.
• Sabotage usually result in fire disasters

Drought

• One of the most important natural disasters in the Sub - region
• Aggravated by human actions.
• Serious impact on regional food production.
• About 3,000,000 animals representing 13% of the livestock population lost annually
• Reduces annual agricultural yield by 12%-40%

Bush fire

• Tends to be seasonal
• Occurs almost everywhere in the Sub - region particularly in dry season
• Loss may amount to >$20 million annually.

• Psycho–social
• Food supply
• Water accessibility
• Epidemics
• National development

Psycho–social

• Disrupt the communal or national contentment.
• Accessibility limitation to motor, train and air traffics
• Destruction of recreational facilities
• More displaced people, refugee and over crowding

Food supply

• Damage to wild and domestic animals
• Food shortages and starvation for millions of people.
• Agricultural yield by 12-40% annually.

Water accessibility

• Only 1% of 70% earth surface water is accessible
• Accessible surface water become polluted by oil spill, damage sewerage system

Epidemics

• Disruption and contamination of water supply
• Food-borne diseases
• Population displacement i.e. people, animals
• Zoonoses

National development

• National under- development (Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Chad, CAR, Liberia)
• Life expectancy for entire population
• Economic loss and poor performance by governments
• Diversion of funds meant for routine control programmes to relief of disasters

NOTE: POVERTY is a disaster and a cause of disaster. Poverty is a local cause of disaster. Poverty makes people live in the slum. It also make one to buy land that is cheap, along a river bank; and when flood comes, it washes the house built on this land.

Overlapping cycle of activities

1. Preparedness
2. Response
3. Mitigation
4. Coordination

Disaster preparedness

• Preparedness measures or activities are the ones that a put in place in anticipation that a disaster might occur.
• It includes:
1. Disaster Mapping
2. Disaster planning
3. Continuous surveillance of disaster
4. Sensitization and awareness
• Ongoing multi-sectorial activity i.e. communication, health, social welfare, police & security, search & rescue, transport.
• Aim to facilitate relief and rehabilitative measures when disaster will occur
• An integral part of national system.
• Developing plans and programmes in anticipation of disasters.
• In 1976, FGN established National Emergency Relief Agency (NERA) to co-ordinate disaster response activities
• In 1999, National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was established to replace NERA
• NEMA mandated to manage disasters in Nigeria.
• In collaboration with other organizations and agencies e.g. FEPA, WHO, UNICEF, MSF.
• Inter-Agency Coordinating Committee (ICC)
• Has Emergency Preparedness and Response (EPR) as sub-committee
• Identification of available resources (Money, Manpower, Materials & relevant agencies)
• Set early warning systems, Situation analysis, Capacity building, Advocacy
• Exploratory team – epidemiologist, logisticians, lab experts.

Disaster response

• Response are the activities that are carried out when the disaster has occurred
• Emergency phase i.e. search, rescue & first aid, the field care, triage, tagging, identification of the dead
• Relief phase i.e. Housing, food, water, drugs & sanitation
• Epidemiologic surveillance and disease control
• Rehabilitation phase i.e. Medical, vocational, social & psychological.

Disaster mitigation

• Complements the disaster preparedness and response
• Aims to lessen the effects and vulnerability of disasters
• Are measures put in place to reduce the vulnerability of communities, family or individuals, to disaster and to enable the people cope with disaster should it occur
• 2nd Wednesday of Oct. is “World Disaster Reduction Day”
• Newer technology i.e. satellite remote sensing, weather satellite imagery, geographic information system (GIS), space imagery, satellite communication are all indispensable for disaster mitigation works
• Mitigation measures i.e. flood mitigation works, appropriate land use planning, improved building code
• Advocacy, capacity building and social mobilisation

Disaster coordination

• Linkage of all the various stages
• Aims to harness all efforts
• Reduces parallel and duplicated programmes
• Establishment off the national disaster coordinator

• Review of disaster surveillance activities
• Reporting
• Response
• Rescue
• Relief
• Recovery
• Reconstruction
• Rehabilitation
• Restoration