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Don't wait till disaster strikes
By Clarence Welikala
The setting up of a Civil Defence Academy for Disaster Management is a long-felt need in this country. Recently, the government took steps to address the subject of Disaster Management and bring it under its National Policy. Yet this idea has not been given due importance, although parts of the country have been devastated by natural disasters recently.

Disaster means not only the commonly perceived effects of sudden natural events such as earthquakes, tropical storms, floods and volcanic eruptions, but also the effects of drought, crop failure as a result of blight or infestation and other phenomena which are slow to develop. Disaster is a term also used to describe the accidental damaging or destructive effects of man's normal activities. These include, but are not limited to, radiation accidents, oil spills, atmospheric contamination and transport accidents. Finally, it also means deliberate acts of man - war, civil strife and riot - that bring about conditions in which relief has to be provided to innocent sufferers and which will later call for rehabilitative and reconstruction measures.

Definitions
1. A useful definition of disaster which includes both the physical event and the social and economic consequences, is:
"An event, concentrated in time landscape, in which a society (or a community) undergoes severe danger and incurs such losses to its members and physical appurtenances that the social structure is disrupted and the fulfilment of all or some of the essential functions of the society is prevented."
2. A more specific definition, which is restricted to sudden events, is:
"A major incident seriously disrupting life, arising with little or no warning, causing or threatening death or serious injury to, or rendering homeless, such numbers of persons in excess of those which can be dealt with by the public services operating under normal procedures, and which calls for the special mobilization and organization of these services."

Scale of emergency
There are three levels of emergency and all contingency plans should reflect the possibility of these levels changing. These levels are:
1. Emergencies that start and remain small
2. Emergencies that start small and then escalate
3. Emergencies that are major from the outset

Contingency planning
An appropriate definition of contingency plan is:
"Plan or arrangement made in case a particular situation should arise."
From this, it is possible to infer that every conceivable situation should have a contingency plan. This is not a practical inference and contingency plans, whilst tailored to specific situations, must have some element of flexibility and scope for generalisation. The basic framework for a contingency plan should make provision for:

1. Containing the emergency
2. Protection of lives and property
3. Meeting legal requirements
4. Re-establishing normal operations when possible
5. Limiting the "after-effects" of the emergency

In addition, the contingency plan should provide for the involvement of:
1. The workforce
2. Safety and environmental specialists
3. Emergency services
4. Companies within the area or within the industry
5. Local authorities
6. The public

Any contingency plan must involve all relevant departments such as police, ambulance, gas, water, fire and electrical authorities. An early consideration must be communications. This is a two-fold factor - to warn that the emergency has arisen and to collect all necessary experts to deal with the situation. Once an incident has occurred, all subsequent actions should be part of the contingency plan. To ensure that there is a coordinated effort, the inclusion and identification of an expert to head the emergency must be an essential part of the contingency plan.

Prevention and preparedness
Disaster prevention and preparedness consist of a wide range of measures - both long and short-term - designed to save lives and limit the damage that might otherwise be caused by the event.

Prevention is concerned with long-term policies and programmes to avoid or eliminate the occurrence of disasters. Corresponding measures are taken in such fields as legislation, physical and urban planning and public works and building.

Preparedness is not limited only to short-term measures which are taken during a warning period before the impact of a disaster; it must be supported by legislation and be concerned with operational planning; education and training of the population at large, and the technical training of those who will be required to help in a relief operation; stockpiling of supplies; and emergency funding arrangements. The more effectively these tasks are carried out in advance, the more readily will it be possible to take necessary action during the emergency phase itself and in the later phases of relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction.

The state of disaster preparedness in a country is a measure of the willingness and capability of the country and its people to take the various steps needed to safeguard lives and property during any warning period which may be granted, as well as in the post-disaster phase.

General preparedness measures
The following measures should be formulated and instituted with a view to being prepared for an eventuality:
1. Emergency plans
2. Legislation
3. Financial measures and compensation
4. Organisation
5. Communications
6. Predictions, forecasts and warnings
7. Public warnings and information
8. Damage and needs assessment for the post-disaster phase
9. Emergency health care
10. Evacuation
11. Training and education

Awareness
Everyone who will be required to be engaged in a disaster response must be made aware of the impact of disaster - the number of victims who may be involved, including anxious or bereaved relatives and friends and those responding and the potential scale and complexity of the response.

The emergency services awareness training will cover in detail those aspects of joint operations at and around the scene of the disaster. Local authorities should place more emphasis on how various departments can combine to support the emergency services in the initial stage of the disaster, make arrangements to care for those affected, maintain essential services and make preparations for recovery from the disaster.

Liaison and co-ordination
The training given should highlight the importance of effective liaison and co-ordination in the planning and delivery of the combined response. It is crucial to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the combined response to ensure that good practice is conveyed through joint training.

Dealing with the media
There will be a need for the organisation involved in the disaster response to have co-ordinated arrangements to deal with the media. There is enormous media interest in disasters worldwide and the way in which the media is given access must be handled with great delicacy. Where possible, they should be given fairly frequent press releases. If they do not receive them, there is a likelihood that they may misreport, which could ultimately be to the detriment not only of the victims and the bereaved, but also to those involved in the response teams.

General modalities of civil defence vis-a-vis disaster management at national level
Civil defence is itself intrinsically bound with peripheral support for national defence. Special targets of attack and disruption will be vital government buildings, industries and installations. It is essential that a dedicated study be made and a firm decision arrived at to inaugurate the proposed Civil Defence Academy.

To achieve this objective, it is necessary to formulate legislation, stipulating guidelines for the launch and functions of the Civil Defence Academy. The academy should fall under the purview of a senior minister who should be vested with adequate and appropriate powers to enforce measures even at provincial scale.

Bringing it under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Defence will help create a better awareness of civil defence among the public. The description of the 'disaster continuum' should be reflected in the successive phases of disaster prevention, preparedness, emergency relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. It is, of course, in the last of these phases that elements of disaster prevention can be included, thus reducing the impact of a similar future event. It is because this linkage exists that it is important for a comprehensive approach to be adopted to planning, and this can be done at national level because the phases of prevention and reconstruction tend to attract less international attention and assistance.

Any disaster or major emergency disrupts normal life, causes breakdowns in (or makes excessive demands upon) the national administration and infrastructure, affects production, and generally means that resources have to be diverted from normal and development purposes to relief, rehabilitation and reconstruction. The people who suffer the most are usually those with the least resilience and with few, if any, resources of their own.

The final objective of pre-disaster planning, using the term in its widest meaning, should be the attainment of post-disaster conditions, which will be superior to those which existed before. To attain this aim, it will be necessary to seek and obtain the participation and cooperation of the people in the execution of plans, encourage self-resilience, and avoid the creation of a state of dependency or apathy. Technical resources have their place - an important place - in pre-disaster planning, but a wise planner will recognise that the people themselves are the most important resource at his command.

Conclusion
Eventually the country will be faced with some form of major loss. An emergency can occur any time and anywhere. A plan is designed to deal effectively with a perceived emergency and its aftermath. What cannot be planned for is the direction an incident will take once it has started. Do not consider any scenario as impossible. In similar vein, the Civil Defence Academy for Disaster Management in Sri Lanka is not impossible if a sincere and concerted effort is made to establish this instituition.

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