Disaster prevention needs far more investment

Lazarus Sauti

Natural disasters are increasing in number and frequency, and affect most countries in Africa.

They severely impact on food and water security and had major human and economic costs in some countries within Africa.

More so, disasters cause human suffering and deaths, as well as extensive damage to infrastructure and crops.

A World Risk Report 2013 states, “Inhabitants of sub-Saharan Africa are threatened by natural disasters and this has led to consequences like poverty and disease.”

Sadly, countries within and across the African continent and their respective governments are failing to protect their residents from disasters.

To lessen problems posed by disasters, African countries should invest in good drainage systems that could help with floods.

True to the cliché that prevention is better than cure, with disasters prevention is cheaper that disaster relief.

More so, to protect Africa and her citizenry from disasters, African governments should make binding commitments to reduce risks from climate change-related disasters such as drought and flooding.

They, through the African Union, should create a continental contingency fund to finance drought and flood prevention projects to help vulnerable countries reduce the human and economic costs of climate-related disasters.

This requires the AU to devise a ‘bold and binding continental agreement to protect poor communities.

Thomas Gebauer, president of the Alliance Development Works, a German NGO coalition, urges for solidarity laws to reduce the risk of disaster for people in African countries south of the Sahara.

He said: “Rich countries have to transfer funds to poor countries so that they can improve their health systems. When I called for the idea, people called me a dreamer. But we should always be clear that initially each individual country has the duty to take care of its residents.”

Tom Mitchell, head of climate change at the Overseas Development Institute, shares the same sentiments and believes that “the importance of governments prioritising investment in disaster risk-reduction and preparedness cannot be understated” - particularly as the impact of climate change on people and livelihoods is expected to grow.

At the same time, science can help countries within and across Africa to develop early-warning systems for disasters.

This means scientists in the continent must develop an interdisciplinary approach to disaster risk reduction research and show how their work can inform policy creation and delivery.

Jane Rovins, executive director of Integrated Research on Disaster Risk, an international research programme, is of the view that better cohesion is needed between scientific disciplines to push the disaster risk reduction agenda within international policy circles.

She said, “There are lots of people doing fantastic science but there is no consistent message to policymakers.”

Rovins goes on to say: “The scientific community’s failure to provide a united voice before 2015 - when both a post-Hyogo framework and the Sustainable Development Goals are expected to come into force - would be a major setback for disaster risk research.

“If this does not get moved up to the higher levels of the international community, we are going to slide backwards.”

Since core development programmes, such as poverty reduction and basic services provision, have a much greater influence on reducing the impact of disasters, African governments should therefore be urged to embrace them.