ACCORDING to the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration, up to two tropical cyclones are expected to enter the Philippine area of responsibility this month. These cyclones have a higher chance of making landfall and may even become super typhoons, it added.
Now that we’ve been forewarned, what should we do with the information we have?
The destruction we see after each disaster leaves us no recourse but to act fast. We cannot be perpetually on a steep, non-progressing learning curve. Disaster resilience is not merely about relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. It is about identifying, understanding and addressing the risks so that natural hazards will not turn into disasters.
Disaster risk reduction is a shared responsibility of government, communities, businesses and individuals. How many lives and properties we save is ultimately defined by the amount of meaningful effort and resources we put into building resilience in our communities.
We wish to stress on this message: We do not build resilience through relief efforts. Instead, we have to lessen the need for disaster relief. Understanding the risk will help us know how we can effectively address it — for government to create necessary programs, for legislators to craft appropriate policies, for local governments to develop multi-hazard early warning systems based on the specific risk in their communities, for the private sector to invest in risk-reduction measures, and for citizens to be proactive in helping reduce the risks.
Consider this: the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) reported that between 1995 and 2015, “90% of major disasters have been caused by 6,457 recorded floods, storms, heat waves, droughts and other weather-related events. The five countries hit by the highest number of disasters are the United States (472), China (441), India (288), Philippines (274), and Indonesia, (163).” In that 20-year period, 606,000 lives have been lost and 4.1 billion people have been injured, left homeless or in need of emergency assistance as a result of weather-related disasters.
In the coming years, the scenario could be worse. We need to promote a new approach in dealing with climate change and disaster risk. To adapt to the new normal requires a change in the way we think and do things. Building resilience should be everybody’s attitude. With this mindset, we can scale up existing government programs to rectify structures that breed disaster risk and trap the poor in the vicious cycle of risk and poverty.
We must reduce the vulnerability and exposure of our people and our economy to the impact of natural hazards if we are to reduce poverty and develop steadily.
