Disaster Relief Planning - Essay Example

? Disaster Relief Plan Introduction The chief officers of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) are responsible for providing the necessary relief aids inthe US. The EMS chiefs believe that the National Response Framework (NRF) has been formed for providing extended support to the victims of the natural disasters. Furthermore, the increased terrorist attacks have enhanced the need for NRF in order to address natural and human-led challenges through control, coordination, command and communication. It is in this context that the NRF is designed to perform immediate actions in order to save lives, protect assets and social environments and meet fundamental requirements of human beings. The people involved with NRF are further responsible for appropriate execution of emergency plans to support short-term resurgences (International Association of Emergency Medical Services Chiefs, 2008). Hereby, the objective of the report is to design a National Disaster Relief Plan (NDRF) for Thailand which has been frequently affected by natural disasters, such as tsunami, earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. According to the planning, it has been expected that the NDRF will provide assistance to the citizens of the country in order to save their lives from various natural disasters. Socio-Demographic Information The geographic attributes of Thailand consists of 514,000 square kms, of which 3,219 kms is covered with coastline. The statistics suggest that majority of the country is surrounded by water which makes it one of the most probable countries to be affected by tsunami. As of December 2010, the population of the country accumulated to 63.87 million approximately. It has further been observed that considerable percentage of Thai people die due to the bacterial infections caused by waterborne diseases (United Nations Thailand, 2008). Identification of Two Types of Disasters In the pats record, tsunami has been one of the most uncommon and probable disasters causing devastating effects on numerous lives and properties of Thailand. The most disastrous tsunami, to have ever struck Thailand, was in the year 2004 which accounted for the destruction of numerous lives, families and properties. Statistics reveal that nearly 5,395 people died, while 2,817 of them could not be traced. The disaster shook the Thai economy which was in a quite stable position in comparison to other developing nations (United Nations Thailand, 2008). Frequent earthquakes can be identified as another major disaster that the country is prone to. Although in most cases it has been found that tsunami is caused due to the earthquakes under the sea, above the ground too there are high probabilities of the similar disaster. It is worth mentioning in this regard that the last earthquake that shook Thailand took place on April 16, 2012. Although the magnitude was not too high, tremors have been felt within a vast area around the epicenter (US Geological Survey, 2012). It is in this context that in order to ensure rapid and effective response for providing relief to the citizens of Thailand, NDRF has been designed. Initially, the NDRF will be designed bearing in mind the two most common natural disasters, i.e. tsunami and earthquake. Following the successfulness of NDRF in the later years, the organization will look forward towards incorporating more relief plans to mitigate the consequences caused by other disasters. Planning Assumptions Numerous challenges have been experienced in relation to the aftermath of tsunami which struck Thailand and its surrounding areas in the year 2004. It is important to address all the communities while providing relief in order to avoid creating any vulnerable groups. Moreover, it has been observed that many children had become homeless as well as orphans. Hence, with no one to look after these children, it becomes the responsibility of the communities to safeguard them in availing the basic amenities for life and also from being exploited. However, the most important concern for any country’s government is to restore the livelihood and bring back the economy in a normal condition (United Nations Thailand, 2008). Considering all these consequences led by the occurrence of natural disasters, the government of Thailand can form an organization, with the name Disaster Relief Organization Thailand (DROT) in order to protect the countrymen from the grievous effects and restore livelihood within a short period of time. In the event of a natural disaster such as tsunami, the DROT should ensure that coordinated and collaborative efforts are being conducted in order to respond rapidly to the affected areas. The DROT team should also make sure that sufficient food, water and clothing is available to the population affected by the tsunami or earthquake or any other disaster. The team should thereby consist of doctors and other healthcare professionals to serve with medical emergency services providing first aid relief to the victims. Furthermore, the DROT team is expected to be quick in shifting the victims from the affected areas to the relief camps specifically reserved for the affected population of natural disasters. For this purpose, the DROT team will be provided with two helicopters in the event of any natural disaster in the country. In regards to the probable challenges that may arise due to the affects of natural disasters, the government of Thailand shall appoint financial officers in the DROT team who will be responsible to analyze the financial loss at the community-level as well as at the individual level. Furthermore, the financial officers will evaluate the fund required for the restoration of the livelihood in a particular community which may include construction of houses, buying necessities required for preparing foods and sufficient clothes for temporary settlements. The financial assessment will then be forwarded to the Prime Minister who will decide on the fund to be allocated for the restoration purposes. It is worth mentioning in this context that the dangerous affects of tsunami can be prevented by installing ‘tsunami warning systems’, especially in the areas closer to the sea coast being the most probable areas to be affected. However, implementing of this type of modern prevention systems will require huge amount of funds. Therefore, the government can develop an online funding program titled as Tsunami Relief Fund which will have at least US $1million contributions annually. The government shall therefore take initiatives in promoting the allocation of funds and evaluating the objectives. Through this process, every citizen will be able to transfer any amount of money to the online funding source in order to support the cause of the government and protect the country’s economy. Organizational Structure The Chief Commanding Officer (CCO) of DROT will be the president of Thailand. The president will hold discretionary powers for making any decision in order to provide relief to the disaster victims. The financial officers will be appointed by the President among the existing government auditors. These officers will send the financial report directly to the President which will then be forwarded to the Prime Minister. The amount of fund to be allocated will be the sole decision of the Prime Minister and the Cabinet. Furthermore, a General will be appointed who will be responsible for communicating the President’s orders to the relief teams. Furthermore, ex-army Generals will be hired in order to provide effective training to the team for taking rapid decisions. Existing Infrastructure of Thailand and Related Issues It was during the event of 2004 tsunami, the country’s disaster management system was exposed for the first time. The Interior Minister responsible for National Civil Defense Academy and the Commander-in-Chief for the agency played an imperative role in the collaboration of various government agencies and other non-government agencies interested in assisting the victims of tsunami. Meetings based on rehabilitation, response and recovery phase were conducted on a regular basis among all parties of the country under the guidelines of Civil Defense Act 1979 (House of Representatives of the Philippines, 2011). However, due to the outdated solutions and time-consuming strategies, the Civil Defense Act 1979 has been terminated after 30 long years of use. The termination led to the introduction of a new act, i.e. the Disaster Prevention and Mitigation Act (DPMA) 2007. The DPMA is a policy making body which is chaired by the Prime Minister of Thailand. It further comprises of 34 members, who held ministries and organizations related to disaster management. Particularly in largely affected disasters, the Interior Minister acts as the Commander-in-Chief while taking any decision. Furthermore, the Director under 2007 DPMA functions as the incident commander in case of an event caused by the occurrence of a natural disaster (House of Representatives of the Philippines, 2011). Conclusion The most important and certainly the most challenging phase post disaster is the recovery phase. It is the responsibility of the government to make the economy stable as well as provide rapid assistance in rebuilding the livelihood of the people. Furthermore, the affects of huge natural disaster can last for a considerable period as orphan children are exploited by vulnerable groups. The inability to unite communities in these types of crisis situations is consequentially most likely to lead towards political instability and discontinuation of the ruling parties. Thus, effective planning and framework for preventing citizens from the natural disasters and strategies for instant recovery of livelihoods are essential. Although the issues that pose threats to the recovery phase are not always the same, the NDRF incorporates effective strategies which will address the common issues affecting the rehabilitation phases. References House of Representatives of the Philippines. (2011). Thailand’s country report on disaster response management. Retrieved from http://www.congress.gov.ph/aipa.2011/delreps/CR8_Thailand_On%20Disaster%20Response%20Management.pdf International Association of Emergency Medical Services Chiefs. (2008). 08-03, Department of homeland security - national response framework. Retrieved from http://www.iaemsc.org/pdfs/0803-National%20Response%20Framework.pdf United Nations Thailand. (2008). Thailand info. Retrieved from http://www.un.or.th/thailand/geography.html US Geological Survey. (2012). Magnitude 3.9 Malay Peninsula, Thailand. Retrieved from http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/eqarchives/last_event/world/world_thailand.php Read More