13 OCTOBER 2020 DISASTER REDUCTION DAY
CORONA VIRUS PANDEMIC-NATURAL CURSE
RESILIENCE-The WEALTH-of-THE-NATION
Humankind is already under the brink of Global Extinction with the additional burden of COVID 19 Pandemic, which broke out in November 2019. Global contaminations, as at 13 October 2020 are 37,704,153 and Deaths have reached 1,079,029 and 259,975 New Cases, according to World Health Organization (WHO).
{Americas: 18,004,043; South-East Asia: 8,053,218; Europe: 7,108,781 Eastern Mediterranean: 2,639,723; Africa: 1,237,088 and Western Pacific: 660,559 Confirmed
Source: World Health Organization
Data may be incomplete for the current day or week.}
https://covid19.who.int/
The way in which this Biological Hazard is being managed by most Policy Makers world-wide crystalizes vividly their inability to provide protection and security to their respective populations. Natural Calamities do not stop at Cyclones, Hurricanes, Typhoons, Floods, Avalanches, Droughts, Forest Fires, Tsunamis, Storm Surges, Earthquakes, Volcanisms, Pests, etc. Apart from these Hazards from the Land, Oceans and Atmosphere, Astral Bombardments are other potentials for destroying all lives and economic gains.
Pharmaceutical and Researchers are unable to find a cure in terms of medications and vaccines for relieving human diseases. NOVEL CORONA VIRUS emerged from SARS and MERS about 5 years ago. Yet, no progress in solving the issues has been praiseworthy. Several international institutions are competing to discover a cure and appear to fail, despite clinical tests. However, plants and herbs are being prescribed to relieve the population of Madagascar, which is the last cradle of natural cures. But, neither the WHO nor pharmaceuticals are recognizing such a solution. All these prove clearly that HUMAN INTELLIGENCE has come to a halt, wherefrom MASS EXTINCTION has already started. Refer to the article on PERSEVERANCE Rover which was launched by NASA on 30 July 2020.
Besides, wearing a face mask is crucial for protecting oneself, coupled with sanitization and physical distancing practices. Nevertheless, the mask issue was very controversially implemented because of lack of adequate stocks. This situation was also seen world-wide.
In spite of several International Conventions and Protocols adhered by all countries, Policy Makers are proving Bad Governance as far as Sustainable Development is achieved.
[ GENEVA, 12 October 2020 – –Human Cost of Disasters, An Overview of the last 20 Years 2000-2019:
A UN report published to mark the International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction on October 13, confirms how extreme weather events have come to dominate the disaster landscape in the 21st century.
In the period 2000 to 2019, there were 7,348 major recorded disaster events claiming 1.23 million lives, affecting 4.2 billion people (many on more than one occasion) resulting in approximately US$2.97 trillion in global economic losses.
This is a sharp increase over the previous twenty years. Between 1980 and 1999, 4,212 disasters were linked to natural hazards worldwide claiming approximately 1.19 million lives and affecting 3.25 billion people resulting in approximately US$1.63 trillion in economic losses.
Much of the difference is explained by a rise in climate-related disasters including extreme weather events: from 3,656 climate-related events (1980-1999) to 6,681 climate-related disasters in the period 2000-2019.
The last twenty years has seen the number of major floods more than double, from 1,389 to 3,254, while the incidence of storms grew from 1,457 to 2,034. Floods and storms were the most prevalent events.
The report “The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019” also records major increases in other categories including drought, wildfires and extreme temperature events. There has also been a rise in geo-physical events including earthquakes and tsunamis which have killed more people than any of the other natural hazards under review in this report.
Mami Mizutori, the UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, said today: “We are willfully destructive. That is the only conclusion one can come to when reviewing disaster events over the last twenty years. COVID-19 is but the latest proof that political and business leaders are yet to tune in to the world around them.
“Disaster management agencies, civil protection departments, fire brigades, public health authorities, the Red Cross and Red Crescent, and many NGOs are fighting an uphill battle against an ever-rising tide of extreme weather events. More lives are being saved but more people are being affected by the expanding climate emergency. Disaster risk is becoming systemic with one event overlapping and influencing another in ways that are testing our resilience to the limit. The odds are being stacked against us when we fail to act on science and early warnings to invest in prevention, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.
“Good disaster risk governance depends on political leadership and delivery on the promises made when the Paris Agreement and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction were adopted five years ago. The report is a reminder to UN Member States of their commitment to strengthen disaster risk governance and to have national and local strategies for disaster risk reduction in place by 2020. This is a key target of the global blueprint for reducing disaster losses, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which was adopted at a World Conference in 2015. So far, 93 countries have put national strategies in place.”
Professor Debarati Guha-Sapir, Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters, University of Louvain, Belgium, said: “This report covers the first twenty years of this century and does not include biological hazards like COVID-19 but it clearly highlights the level of human suffering and economic loss that result from failure to adapt to climate change and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. If this level of growth in extreme weather events continues over the next twenty years, the future of mankind looks very bleak indeed.
“We will have to live with the consequences of existing levels of climate change for a long time to come and there are many practical measures that can be taken to reduce the burden of disaster losses especially on low and middle-income countries that lack resources and are most exposed to economic losses on a scale that undermines their efforts to eradicate poverty and to provide good quality social services including health and education.” ]
Author: Denis McClean.
Global Assessment Report (GAR) on Disaster Risk Reduction 2019, United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR):
[‘Disaster risk reduction strategies or plans aligned with the Sendai Framework
Achievement of Target E by 2020 is a marker of progress and an essential element of the enabling environment to achieve all the Sendai Framework
targets and goal by 2030. With only a year to go until 2020 and only 11 years until 2030, it is now a matter of urgency for countries to set themselves
more ambitious priorities by updating their existing strategies and plans to pursue prospective risk management objectives that can access public and
private investments.’
8.3.1
Data from the online Sendai Framework Monitoring system
As of October 2018, the overall average compliance of alignment with the Sendai Framework is 0.60.]
Disaster Resilience is the ‘Wealth-of-the Nation’.
The main objective of the Early Warning Systems (EWS) is to prevent loss of Life, of Economic Gains, of Livelihood and material assets. The recent shipwreck of MV Wakashio container on 25 July 2020 in the waters of South-East of Mauritius, triggered massive oil spills, hence an ecological disaster. The accidental capsizing, on 31 August 2020, of one local tugboat (Sir Gaetan Duval) used for this purpose caused another misfortune. The probable death of the captain still missing and 3 others being missing for a day, but luckily saved after many searches.
These misfortunes took place during the Anti-Cyclone episodes, despite Weather Warnings were issued by the Mauritius Meteorological Services. The impacts of Anti-Cyclones and of Ocean Currents are not at all understood by captains, sailors, skippers, fishermen and general public.
A similar marine event happened in 2016 when Benita Container was shipwrecked in the same zone. During the same period 2 pleasure boats had capsized in South-East of Mauritius in which 2 lost their lives, including one policeman. Moreover, another pleasure catamaran became topsy turvy drowning one female tourist in the northern sea of the Island. The then Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Tourism, Honourable Xavier Duval (son of late Gaetan Duval, a policy maker during pre and post-independence of Mauritius), denied my sensitization programme beneficial to all the stakeholders.
Lessons were not learnt from similar miserable events. The Policy Makers and civil servants display their amateurism in managing such Disasters and are powerless in ADAPTING to the Forces of Nature. Losses of lives and of material assets are inevitable. Besides, 13 October Disaster Reduction Day 2019 was not marked, because there was a caretaker government pending the General Elections of 07 December 2019.
The Mauritius Meteorological Services Act was legislated on 13 September 2019, although it became a member of World Meteorological Organization (WMO) on 17 July 1969. The National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Centre (NDRRMC) Act was passed in 2015, following the Hyogo Framework for Action 2000-2015.
However, the National Disaster Risk Reduction Management Centre (NDRRMC) launched a website and made a mini simulation exercise today. As stated often in this website the Disaster Management Centre of Mauritius was operating on an Ad-Hoc basis, Fetus-like, Amateurish.
The article published on the occasion of last Years’ DR Day still stands good. See extract below.
Suggestions for Global Challenges
The basis for building a Disaster Resilient Society rests on three main pillars.
- It is the utmost duty of the Policy Makers to introduce ‘Country-Driven- Mechanisms’ through legislation with a philosophy of ‘Putting-People-First’ or ‘People-Centred’. Early Warning Systems (EWS) form part of the ‘Mechanisms’;
- Education is the second one in which school curriculums which provide appropriate guidelines towards Resilience. This is also known as Sensitization whose chronological and gradual steps are: ‘Awareness, Preparedness, Adaptation, Mitigation, Response, Rescue, Relief and Rehabilitation’. No doubt school textbooks must be ‘Teacher-Friendly’, ‘Student-Friendly’ and ‘Up-to-date’ in data, information and photographs/videography. See below my ‘Disaster Resilience Campaign’ during my Mission in India 10 December 2018-12 June 2019 and
- The civil society must challenge the Policy Makers by making them accountable in Providing Protection and Safety to their respective population. Moreover, NGOs, Campaigners and Well-Wishers are other Stakeholders who are eligible for support by the government and authorities. So, the ‘Top-Down’ concept until the grass roots of all sectors of society is crucial for reducing vulnerability and for building Resilience.
PKANHYE. 22.30 HRS TUESDAY 13 OCTOBER 2020.