Disaster Risk Science as the System Approach to Help in the Reconstruction of Haiti - Case Study Example

Name: University: Course: Tutor: Date: Managing the Unexpected Every where in the world disaster strikes leaving hundreds and thousands dead and the devastating damage that these disasters leave behind has an enormous loss to the population of the state related to the disaster. Over the last decade the world has been engulfed with many environmental or natural disasters, although with a closer look they are human affiliated, brought about by technological and human activities that result or increase the chances of natural disasters. In this paper am going to address disaster risk science as the system approach that will help in the reconstruction of Haiti. This will also help in understanding what transpired and is aimed at a theoretical broad based acknowledgement of risk brought about by disasters, vulnerability factors and hazard interplays. This approach is basically aimed at pin pointing causes that generate disasters, human attributes to disasters and also how to build strategically analytical capabilities management on risk reduction practices and processes. This approach is best suited for disaster management in Haiti. This approach will help the reader to know the complex nature that disasters leaves the native of the affected area, the vulnerable state they are left in. the risk and challenges they face on daily basis as they wait for relief to come, these is especially felt by those people who are in the outskirts of major towns. This approach allows the authorities who are executing this controls or prevention to take precaution on matters which are crucial and needs immediate response. Disaster is a tragedy or occurrence that can originate from natural causes, deliberate intent or accidents which result in destruction of facilities, records and infrastructures. They also are considered the most common natural threat to personal safety leaving behind many losses of lives and casualties, disaster can also disrupt operations and can paralyses operational networks of a state. (Quarantelli, E.L. (ed.) 2008 Pp 90) There are many classifications in the subject of disaster and in this essay we are going to classify disaster in three segments namely human conflict based events, natural disasters and technological and human error disasters; Human conflict based events falls in the class of human activities that create unrest and reduce life expectancy in the human race, these factors include riots, civil unrest, suicide bombing, wars, judicial killings and acts of terrorism. These man made disasters are observed all over the world because of conflict between countries and within states. Natural disasters; these are disasters that occur naturally but are sometime triggered by human negligence and degradation activities in the eco-system and the environment. This includes floods, storms, hurricanes, volcanoes, earthquakes. Tornadoes, forest fires and mud slide. These natural activities that affect the demographical state of a country or region are some triggered by the human involvement in areas that are prone to these activities (Lee, & Bui, (2000). Deforestation in the tropical region makes the region venerable to floods, mudslides or severe drought; these in most poor countries are attributes that most government sees them as small agenda until when they create unrest like in Haiti. Technological and human error attributes are the aftermath of human experiments gone bad and the dire consequences can be very severe because in most cases the experiment are nuclear affiliated like in nuclear power plant disasters or use of atomic war head in the battle field like the Hiroshima and accident in plants like explosion of industrial plant in India and Bhopal. Other include oil spills in the ocean, green house carbon emission in developed countries, mine caving in incidence, fast trains collisions and pipeline fires outbreaks. There are many levels of disasters and there are remedies to many but not the natural cases like those of Haiti. Although some disasters can be due to negligence by the population of a certain place, knowledgeable advice if properly deployed will help those who are like sitting ducks to disaster prone areas like Haiti. In this essay will look at mostly the state of Haiti and the nature of the disaster the region has gone through from time immemorial. This has not been the first time that this state has been hit by such disasters, for residents of this state are prone to tsunamis, hurricanes, mud slides, earthquakes, flood and tropical storms. These disasters have the left the state in devastated state and although analysts are quick to point out that most of this disasters are human affiliated, some are just natural geographical state of the region which this country occupies (Cuny, 1983). This natural effect that has been on and off on the calendar of this state and the level of governance that this first black led state in the Caribbean, has left the state in a very poor position and it is considered to be the most poorest state in the Caribbean and most of the occupants form the majority of migrants in the neighboring state Dominican republic. The recent turn of events in Haiti have left thousands dead and thousands reported as missing and mostly assumed dead, have also affected are nearly all infrastructure in this state. The complexity of the Haiti disaster is so complex that all infrastructure used to connect the region with the outside world were affected by the quake. Just as the aid was gaining access and temporary infrastructures were being set up to connect the town worse hit by the quake were under way, another quake with lower magnitude hit this state. This second disaster brought about fear to the occupants of this state and because of the culture and beliefs in voodoos practices among the locals of this state. Fear of the people are so high that they believe that it’s an omen that has befallen on them and many are opting not to go back to their houses even in areas that the quake took less effect. (Wisner, Ben; P. Blaikie, T. Cannon, & I. Davis 2004 Pp 321) When this disaster hit Haiti the country was ill prepared for such calamity of that scale and the government resources were paralyzed and some destroyed in the aftermath of this calamity. According to Drabek, (1986) poor engineering of infrastructure in a region with earth quake history is another factor, if the civil engineers of this state had paid attention at the construction of infrastructures, then the magnitude of disaster left behind could have been less, compared to the magnitude and the devastating level of destruction that the region experienced due to negligence in the construction of the infrastructure by the civil engineers, the disaster response by the government of this state and the corruption level of this state is another major attribute for the unpreparedness of this region. (Raphael B, 2003 Pp 299) The unpreparedness nature of some third world countries, although this happens even to advanced countries in economy and technology fall in the same class as disaster comes unexpectedly, like the tsunami and earthquakes in Eastern Asia in the year 2004 and the most gruesome attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11 2001, they need disaster management. These are cycles of activities that begin with mitigating vulnerability and negative impacts associated with disasters. There is also preparedness for encountering procedures and provision of relief in emergency circumstances like search and rescue and assisting in recovery of lost human life and also physical reconstruction and the ability of the government to return life to normal after a disaster. Information is the key aspect to handling disaster and also for managing disasters. Amdahl (2002) and Cutter et al (2003) advocate that most information required to curb disaster and manage it have a spatial location or component. Although recent documented studies by SNDR (2002) and Jain and Mclean (2003) indicate that there are considerable issues with running spatial information or data which are a key requirement for disaster management with reverence to data usage, dissemination access and collection. These problems arise during the disaster response phase due to its dynamic and time sensitivity and become more serious and problematic. Mostly these problems that hinder a quick response to the emergency on the ground are sometimes politically influenced due to lack of communication by the right authority or due to wrangles in power among top officials in the government. Mix ups can also affect rescue on the ground because of lack of infrastructure on sites. For instance in Haiti we saw that relief foods were being held in the airport as the rescuers awaited government clearance and also interference of other foreign countries whom are assisting as they sanction who to give aid and whom not. As the case also in Haiti when the aids of most Arabs states were being turned away or the cargo plane carrying the supplies being denied clearance and landing on the Haiti airport (Amdahl, 2002). This conflict of interest between those who are aiding the country is another major issue deterring the disaster response as the country in this turmoil needs no political leverage but quick assistance. Disaster management needs certain disaster recovery programs and planning as this minimizes the disruption of operation and ensures security and stability of the economy of a country is not much damaged by the disaster. The objectives that go side to side with disaster recovery planning and programs include; providing security sense, risk delay minimization, standby system reliability guarantee, provision of testing plan standards, and the minimization of decision making during disaster. This was mostly seen in the Haiti airport as the government and the rescue teams had debate over which plane to land and how the relief distribution should be executed making the people in need having to wait for a long time before they can resolve their differences over how the operation should be scheduled. Top management commitment by the government and organization who are offering aid to the destitute should also be top priority for the programs to run smoothly, if the government of the country in disaster is cooperative and information is easily passed around then managing such a catastrophe would be an easy task for the principals whom are running operation would easily transfers information and appoints task for the efficiency of this planning and the aid and relief will flow to their destination without much ado. The government of Haiti could have put up disaster management plan and systems that compliments any short coming from these disasters. Proper preparation and civil involvement and awareness to the public could have been of help in curbing this calamity. This not been the first time that this country has had this issues as in the year 1770 and 1842 earthquake destroyed parts of this country leaving devastating wreckage and loss of civilian live, from this and other natural disasters that has been associated with this region are reasons enough to make the government of this state to step up the game in emergency recuperation and awareness and response that will reduce the causalities for there are no methodologies that can completely do away with natural disasters casualties. (Russell R. Dynes. 1970. Pp 120) Creating awareness to the people of Haiti would have helped and the country investing more on emergency response. This awareness would have help to curd environmental degradation by the locals who had no idea of the dire consequences that are involved and the triggering factors associated with the eco-system of this state. Proper set up of infrastructure would also have encouraged good response from the emergency team provided that the government of Haiti did a good work in contributing to proper and administration of proper networking and good communication technologies and invest on metrological department for warning and detection of such calamities (Feeney Et al, 69). Setting aside funds to cater for the evacuation and administering aid of medical value to those affected by this disaster Conclusion If only the government of Haiti had been prepared properly and the infrastructure of this state had been designed to endure this natural calamity that this state is prone to, and also if the issue of wealth margin would be addressed to promote equality among the locals this would help address construction of earthquake compatible houses. Emergency response should also be the first priority to the government of Haiti in response to disasters. If these precautions are enacted and funds to address these issues are set aside. construction of structures are controlled by the government then the next time this calamity hits will be met with proper response and the numbers of casualties will drastically reduce. Insertion of this model in the government budgetary funds set aside to curb unforeseen calamities should also be enacted, there should be centers with qualified personnel’s for addressing the case of unforeseen and early detection for creating warning for the locals to take precautions. References; Amdahl, G., 2002. GIS for Public Safety. Available from Blaikie, T & I. Davis (2004). At Risk - Natural hazards, people’s vulnerability and disasters. Wiltshire: Routledge. Cuny, C. (1983). Disasters and Development. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Feeney, E., Chan, T. and Rajabifard, A. (2001). ‘The dynamic nature of spatial data infrastructure’, Journal of Geomatica. Vol. 55. No. 1, pp. 65-72 Lee, J. & Bui, T. (2000). ‘Methodology for Disaster Management Information Systems’, Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Vol. 1, No. pp. pp.1050-1084 Quarantelli, E.L. (ed.) (2008), what is a Disaster? New York: Routledge Russell R. Dynes. 1970. Pp 100-134 ‘Organized behavior in disaster,’ USA, Heath Lexington Books. Raphael, B, (2003), When Disaster Strikes Hutchinson London. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Wisner, B. (2004), At Risk: Natural hazards, people's vulnerability, and disasters, 2nd Edition, New York: Rout ledge Read More