Disasters, and how they are managed, have become the subject of increasing research and debate in recent years. This heightened interest signifies that the world has become a more dangerous place for its inhabitants, who are becoming more vulnerable to disasters. Natural disasters often result in years of developmental efforts being wiped out in days, or even minutes.
We recently saw the massive destruction to the Caribbean islands, and even the United States, caused by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. As Hurricane Irma barreled toward Barbuda, all of the 1,800 residents were evacuated to neighbouring Antigua, but the storm destroyed most of Barbuda’s buildings and agriculture. In Dominica, Hurricane Maria claimed the lives of 15 people and affected most of the small island’s population of 73,000 people.
The devastation is unimaginable, and in the coming months, much effort will be placed on rebuilding houses and public infrastructure that were destroyed by the hurricanes. However, it is crucial that, in their efforts to rebuild, countries should rebuild better; meaning buildings and infrastructure should be able to withstand the force of natural disasters, or minimize the effects as much as possible.
With reconstruction costs for the Caribbean nations estimated in the billions of dollars, the UN has said that their economies — often highly indebted and dependent on tourism, fishing and agriculture — need help in setting up a regional emergency insurance fund to soften the impact of disasters.
Experts have predicted that more frequent and extreme weather linked to climate change, like hurricanes and severe flooding, will occur more often. While we cannot prevent natural disasters from occurring, we can certainly prepare better, so that the impact is reduced.
Here, in Guyana, we are seeing a dramatic rise in the construction of buildings and other infrastructure, with most of it occurring in the coastal areas of the country. This is so despite the fact that our entire coastland is threatened whenever it rains excessively or in cases of extreme high tides. The effects of the 2005 floods are still very fresh in the minds of people. It could be recalled that the majority of our coastlands was under water for several days, resulting in the tragic loss of lives, large scale damage to agricultural crops and livestock, and citizens being severely affected from carrying on with their daily activities.
Also, just recently, sections of our hinterland and Linden experienced a few freak storms which resulted in damage to several homes and public buildings etc. These effects are inevitable, and one can only imagine how our economy and our lives in general would be affected should global warming continue at the pace it is currently going.
Surely, the decisions we make today will determine our long-term resilience to natural hazards and be critical to people’s well-being in the short and long terms. When we build in hazard-prone areas, or fail to apply the appropriate building codes, people’s lives and assets are put at risk. For this reason, it is very important that the authorities step up their enforcement and monitoring of the national building codes across the country.
It is also necessary that there be put in place systems aimed at strengthening the country’s capacity to respond to natural disasters in a timely and effective manner. Important, too, is the need to ensure that the financial mechanisms are in place to finance response and recovery in the quickest possible time.
Disasters require complex responses, drawing on a wide range of skills and capacities. Responses require the cooperation of various stakeholders, including multilateral development agencies, and national and local governments, non-governmental organizations, private sector, natural and social scientists, technical specialists and citizens as a whole. There were several calls made before for a more effective National Disaster Preparedness Plan to be put in place so that the country would be in a better position to respond to any major disaster. We are not certain at what stage this is at the moment.
Hurricanes Maria and Irma, including the recent earthquakes in Mexico, should cause the authorities here to pause and analyse our own capacity, not only to respond in a timely and efficient manner in the event of a natural disaster, but also to build our buildings and public infrastructure in such a way that they could withstand the powers of such disasters.
