SECTION 2: SETTING THE CONTEXT

2.1.  THE INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT

2.1.1.  Introduction

Worldwide, the impact of disasters on humans - including all those killed, injured, or made homeless - between 1970-1994 has conservatively been estimated to have affected 134 million people. The annual economic cost to industrialised countries for the period 1990-94 alone was estimated to be more than US$535 million.

While the infrastructural damage from disasters is greatest in industrialised countries, more than 95% of all deaths caused by disasters occur in developing countries.

These enormous losses underscore the urgent need for improved disaster reduction, especially when one considers the negative impact disasters have on the lives of those affected and a country's resources.

A complicating factor is that disaster management has become increasingly complex, compared to previous limited responses to natural and human-made events. The field of disasters, emergencies and risks is a rapidly changing one. Today, the field of disaster management raises many questions of morality and principle. It entails operations of greatly varying scale and diversity.

Disaster management has become a focus area for scientific endeavours to achieve a better understanding of the hazards that shape our natural and built environments and to set standards to bring about a safer world. It encompasses, for example, interpreting the early warning signals of natural phenomena, such as too little or too much rainfall. Similarly, it involves contingency planning and response to emergency events triggered by both natural and non-natural (including technological) forces.

Disaster management seeks to reduce the vulnerability of communities most at risk through improved access to services, development opportunities, information, education and empowerment.

It embraces the body of knowledge, policy and practice associated with humanitarian responses to both natural and technological disasters.

2.1.2.  International trends

In developing the policy outlined in this White Paper, the following international trends were taken into consideration:

• A considerable amount of both indigenous and scientific knowledge exists on natural and technological threats. There has been an increase in the literature on environmental and disaster management. In recent times, there has also been an increased understanding of the important relationship between certain environmental vulnerabilities and human action. This rapidly expanding body of knowledge can greatly improve local forecasting of natural and technological threats. A prerequisite, however, is adequate investment in information systems and information management.

• In many countries, improved information dissemination, emergency response services and community action has allowed for a greater sensitivity to and understanding of early warning signals. This offers the opportunity to minimise human and economic losses by timely intervention, such as the evacuation of communities at risk in flood-prone areas.

• Largely as a result of the United Nation's International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, there is increasing pressure for greater investment in prevention and mitigation actions that avert the need for expensive and often repeated assistance.

• In South Africa, millions of rand, which could support ongoing development initiatives, are diverted to provide relief for those affected by house and veld fires, floods and drought. Similarly, disaster-stricken households are obliged to reallocate their resources and energies to recovery efforts, rather than development activities.

• Studies in Latin America and Asia suggest that the devastating effects of human and economic losses of poorer households in small community disasters are often overshadowed by rarer and more sensational disaster events. This issue has particular relevance in South Africa, where the absence of national and local systems for tracking disaster losses makes it impossible to accurately estimate the uninsured costs that are silently borne by the poorest households and communities.

• Experts in disaster management are increasingly calling for a broader engagement with civil society as a whole - including the private sector, development practitioners, educators and policy makers - as a way of forming cooperative partnerships in the struggle to minimise damage caused by disasters.

2.1.3.  Regional cooperation

Natural and other threats are not constrained by national boundaries. Measures taken in South Africa can increase or reduce risks in neighbouring countries, just as potential dangers across our borders can directly affect South Africa.

Regional cooperation around disaster management has many dimensions. These include improved sharing of early warning information so that precautionary measures can be taken in the event of epidemics, insect infestations and meteorological hazards, to name but a few examples.

It includes joint agreements on emergency preparedness and response procedures, including the movement of people, vehicles and equipment across borders, as well as emergency telecommunication procedures and protocols. In this context, cross-border emergency response protocols should clearly differentiate between the responsibilities of humanitarian agencies, the military, police services and other role players such as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and international assistance agencies.

In order to establish joint standards of practice across the Southern African Development Community (SADC), there is a pressing need to develop accredited curricula for disaster management education and training. This is a prerequisite for ensuring uniformity in standards of humanitarian and mitigation practice across the region.

South Africa's existing bilateral and multilateral agreements with individual countries provide opportunities for incorporating shared mitigation interventions, as well as strengthened early warning capacity and coordinated responses in times of a disaster.

The SADC's sector coordination in Food Security, Water, Transport and Telecommunications also provides opportunities for amending existing protocols to accommodate regional risks and disaster management.

2.1.4.  International agencies

There are many international agencies, intergovernmental organisations and NGOs involved in disaster management. These include United Nations agencies in the front line of emergency assistance, such as:

• The Office of the Coordinator for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).
• The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR).
• The World Food Programme (WFP).
• The United Nation's Children's Fund (UNICEF).
• The World Health Organisation (WHO).

At country level, the resident representative of the United Nation's Development Programme coordinates disaster management matters for locally represented United Nation agencies. There are, however, many other United Nation agencies involved in additional aspects of disaster reduction.

The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), through its support to the Weather Bureau, plays a critical role in weather forecasting. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations' Economic and Social Council (UNESCO) provide technical support on issues of food security and applied scientific understanding of natural and other threats. Moreover, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the International Federation of the Red Cross both provide emergency response support in times of humanitarian crisis.

In a world that is becoming increasingly interdependent, there is a pressing need for South Africa to strengthen its engagement with these international organisations.

South Africa should draw on the extensive expertise of such agencies, have strategies in place for streamlined cooperation in times of crisis and discourage ad hoc and uncoordinated responses in emergency situations. This process, however, must take place within the context of international conventions and South Africa's foreign and economic policy framework.

South Africa needs to clarify procedures for requesting external assistance in areas such as logistics, medical expertise, public health, water and telecommunications. This is an area for priority action as there are few guidelines to ensure the smooth coordination of such international and bilateral assistance.

2.2.  THE CURRENT SITUATION IN SOUTH AFRICA

Disasters in South Africa have been dominated by localised incidents, such as veld fires, seasonal flooding and accidents in the mining industry.

At the national level, severe drought has affected macro-economic growth, as well as the livelihoods of especially the poorer sections of the population living in rural areas. It is difficult, however, to exactly measure the human, economic and environmental costs caused by disasters. Some examples of the high costs of disasters are illustrated in the table below.

While drought, floods, veld fires and mining disasters continue to be areas of concern, disasters that are predicted in the future relate to current trends of rapid urbanisation. Disasters may well result from environmental, technological and natural risk associated with unplanned or poorly planned urbanisation.

The risk factors underlying a disaster occurrence have become increasingly inter-linked.

For instance, declining livelihood opportunities in rural areas are associated with urban migration. The result is rapid growth of under-serviced settlements close to industrial or manufacturing areas which increases the potential for human death and injury in the event of an industrial accident. The disaster "trigger" may be the industrial accident, but the overcrowding and poor living conditions in the settlement nearby place many more at risk, and may result in a much bigger and more serious disaster.

Counting the cost of some recent disasters

Place	Disaster	Cost
Ladysmith	Floods, 1994	400 families evacuated R50 million damages
Merriespruit	Slimes dam, 1994	17 lives lost R45 million damages
Pietermaritzburg	Floods, 1995	173 lives lost Emergency shelter needed for 5 500
Ladysmith	Floods, 1996	Damages to infrastructure: R25 million
South Africa	Drought, 1991-92	49 000 agricultural jobs lost 20 000 non-agricultural jobs lost Associated with 27% decline in agricultural gross domestic product
Northern Province	Floods, 1996	R105 million damages
Mpumalanga	Floods, 1996	R500 million damages

Moreover, there are several factors related to development that are likely to increase the risk of future disaster occurrences. For instance, population growth increases the pressure for residential, agricultural, commercial and industrial development. This in turn results in the occupation of marginal or "at risk" areas such as arid zones and flood plains. The challenge is to minimise the risk to these environmentally vulnerable areas.

Disaster-related losses are hardest felt within historically disadvantaged communities. Current national efforts in poverty reduction, land reform, housing, employment creation and service expansion offer cost-effective opportunities to integrate risk reduction with development initiatives. Failure to seize the opportunities increases the potential for costly losses both at household and community level.

2.3.  DEVELOPING A NEW APPROACH

Current perceptions of disasters need to change. Disasters are not primarily rare occurrences managed by emergency rescue services. Rather, there needs to be a common awareness and shared responsibility for risk reduction in every aspect of our lives.

It is clear that the risk factors for disaster occurrences are interconnected and increasingly driven by patterns of developmental vulnerability. As discussed above, a disaster event can cause human, property, environmental and economic losses, which divert energies and resources away from opportunities for sustainable growth.

The development of a new approach to disaster management calls for a two-pronged approach:

• A significantly strengthened capacity to track, collate, monitor and disseminate information on phenomena and activities known to trigger disaster events, such as droughts, floods, epidemics and fire. This needs to be supported by institutional emergency preparedness and response capacity primarily by government at local, provincial and national levels.

• An increased commitment to prevention and mitigation actions that will reduce the probability and severity of disaster events. These actions should be incorporated into existing and future policies, plans and projects of national, provincial and local government, as well as policies and practices of the private sector.

The proposed National Disaster Management Centre (see Section 3) will play a pivotal in developing and implementing this new approach to disaster management.

2.3.1.  Risk reduction in development planning

Urgent action should be taken to reduce the probability and severity of disaster occurrences through developmental action and planning. This is a broad-based initiative, aimed at significantly reducing the potential for loss of life and injury, as well as economic and environmental costs that result from natural and other threats.

It must, moreover, aim to substantially increase awareness of natural and other threats, so that society demands greater investment and action in risk reduction rather than solely relying on emergency or insured compensation.

The following strategies are examples of what can be done to incorporate risk reduction into development planning:

• Developing integrated disaster management strategies that emphasise risk reduction.

• Adequate allocation of resources to local government to ensure that the most vulnerable communities can depend on reliable disaster management services. These services should alert such communities to natural and other threats and provide professional and humanitarian support in times of emergency. Timely disaster management actions contribute to sustainable development by limiting environmental and property damage, as well as loss of life and livelihood.

• Establishing creative formal and informal initiatives that encourage risk-avoidance behaviour on the part of individuals, the private sector and government.

• Ensuring that South Africa's transportation, telecommunications, electricity and public sector infrastructure networks are able to withstand expected natural and other threats. They are cornerstones for the movement of people, goods and services between urban centres and isolated rural areas. They are also the lifelines for communities when slow and sudden onset disaster events occur, as they will be relied upon to support ongoing development action, as well as humanitarian relief in times of stress.

• Setting and enabling the implementation of minimum building standards, especially for low-cost housing, to ensure structural soundness to withstand the impact of extreme weather patterns.

• Ensuring that development of marginal and environmental fragile areas is appropriate and properly planned.

How to read the White Paper | Foreword by the Minister of Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development | Section 1: Introduction | Section 2: Setting the context  | Section 3: The National Disaster Management Centre | Section 4: Funding disaster management | Section 5: A national Disaster Management Act  | Section 6: Training and community awareness | Section 7: Conclusion | Appendices | The drafting team and acknowledgements |

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