Disaster management: When disaster strikes, poor countries pay with their lives

One writer once said that “We cannot stop natural disasters, but we can arm ourselves with knowledge. So many lives wouldn’t have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness.” According to Warren Buffet, risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.”

But Kseniya (Kate) Strachnyi puts it more candidly thus; “If you look up the synonyms for the word ‘risk; you will likely receive results such as: danger, hazard, threat, peril, and gamble. So, why do people, companies, governments, and countries expose themselves to risk? The answer is simple: without risk there is no reward. Being that risk is an inevitable part of life, it is of great importance to mitigate the exposure. Notice how I said mitigate vs. eliminate. The reason behind this is that if we eliminate all risk, we essentially eliminate all return. Proper risk management ensures that financial institutions create a roadmap to achieve strategic goals. It allows companies to seize opportunities and to mitigate adversity.”

World over, earthquakes and tsunamis are the biggest killers, and 90 per cent of disaster deaths occur in low and middle-income countries. An analysis of 20 years on 7,056 events in which 1.35 million people died also indicated that the third killer overall are climate related disasters.
While describing the report as a damning indictment of inequality, Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary General said that people in low income countries pay for disasters with their lives.
The report was issued to in support of a campaign to reduce global disaster mortality especially in poor countries.

As we celebrate International Risk Reduction Day, let us take a moment to understand disaster and how we can get prepared through past experiences.

Here are a few more quotes on disaster management.

“If we listened to our intellect, we’d never have a love affair. We’d never have a friendship. We’d never go into business. Well, that’s nonsense. You’ve got to jump off cliffs all the time and build your wings on the way down.” – Ray Bradbury

“Wise men say, and not without reason, that whoever wished to foresee the future might consult the past,” Machiavelli

“Risk is like fire: If controlled it will help you; if uncontrolled it will rise up and destroy you,” Theodore Roosevelt

We cannot stop natural disasters but we can arm ourselves with knowledge: so many lives wouldn’t have to be lost if there was enough disaster preparedness – Petra Nemcova
“Total enterprise risk management is critical, but implementing it is both expensive and easier said than done. Even the most sophisticated financial institutions are still basically silo risk managers,” – Danny Klinefelter

“Bad things do happen in the world, like war, natural disasters, disease. But out of those situations always arise stories of ordinary people doing extraordinary things,” – Daryn Kagan

“While natural disasters capture headlines and national attention short-term, the work of recovery and rebuilding is long-term.” – Sylvia Mathews Burwell

“Natural disasters are terrifying – that loss of control, this feeling that something is just going to randomly end your life for absolutely no reason is terrifying. But, what scares me is the human reaction to it and how people behave when the rules of civility and society are obliterated,” – Eli Roth

“Communities are the foundation stone for global disaster resilience. Lessons of preparedness and recovery from disasters and epidemics, including HIV and Ebola, demonstrate that people and communities succeed when placed at the centre of decision-making action,” – Steve Kraus.

“In the 10 years since Hyogo, Governments have increasingly recognized that healthy people are resilient people and that resilient people recover much more quickly from emergencies and disasters,” Bruce Aylward.

“Health and well-being underpin resilience, which is something a disaster risk reduction framework cannot succeed without. This is why health is such an essential component of the post-2015 framework,” Lianne Dalziel.