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Making communities disaster resilient

Making communities disaster resilient. Rohan Samarajiva Global Knowledge 3 11 December 2007, Kuala Lumpur. Findings from work on preparing communities to respond to hazard information. Agenda. Why this approach? ICTs in disaster-risk reduction

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Making communities disaster resilient

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  1. Making communities disaster resilient Rohan Samarajiva Global Knowledge 3 11 December 2007, Kuala Lumpur Findings from work on preparing communities to respond to hazard information

  2. Agenda • Why this approach? • ICTs in disaster-risk reduction • Supplementing government action on public warning • “Better prepared to receive warnings and act” • Fit with Sarvodaya’s grama swarajya (village self-governance) philosophy • Parallels between the classic public-warning model and the community-based hazard information model • Early warning center -- Hazard information hub • Communication to first responders – communication to community leaders • Last mile • Closed system useful for testing improvements to elements of public warning chain

  3. Cyclone Sidr

  4. Why declining deaths?

  5. Completing the chain: Warning & training at the last mile • Bangladesh reduced casualties (but not damage to property & livelihoods) through • Communicating cyclone warnings to villages through HF radios and trained volunteers • Easy-to-understand flag system at the last mile • Cyclone shelters • People who trust the warnings and evacuate Deaths from Sidr would have been less, if not for false tsunami warning and evacuation one month earlier (September 12th, 2007)

  6. Cyclones & tsunamis • Both affect the Bay of Bengal • Tsunamigenic earthquakes in Sunda Trench every year since 2004 • Difference is lead time • 2-3 days for cyclones • 90 mts to 6 hours for Bay of Bengal countries other than Indonesia • Simply replicating Bangladesh is not enough • Bangladesh model used 1990s communication technology • Much has happened since

  7. Physical and symbolic worlds, absent linking technologies Mediated interpersonal Physical world where hazards occur Symbolic world where action originates

  8. The physical, the symbolic & their linking through ICTs, simplified Physical world where hazards occur Warnings (telecom & media) Mediated interpersonal TV, Radio & Cell broadcasts Symbolic world where action originates Warnings (telecom) More time to run; more lives saved

  9. Media & Telecom Operators Citizens National early warning center First responders Early warning chain (standard form)

  10. National early warning center National early warning center Villagers Villagers ERP1 ERP1 ICT Guardians ICT Guardians ERP2 ERP2 SCDMC SCDMC ERP3 ERP3 ERP4 ERP4 Early warning chain (community based; applicable to Last-Mile HazInfo project) Emergency Response Plan coordinator Media Govt 1st Responders From domestic & international sources SCDMC will never issue warnings; only alerts so that communities can be better prepared to receive the warning from government

  11. Remote Alarm Device GSM Mobile Phone CDMA Fixed Phone Addressable Radios for Emergency Alerts Very Small Aperture Terminals ICTs for reaching community leaders

  12. Which work best? • Eight modes (individual and combined) tested • Reliability and effectiveness (composite measures) • Complementary redundancy

  13. Community • Forms of training that will work • Levels of organizational strength • Importance of emergency response plans • Plan without simulation is no plan • Simulation without plan cannot be done

  14. Way forward • Disseminate lessons to improve public warning systems • More trials in specific contexts if needed • Improve community based response • In Sri Lanka, 1,000 Sarvodaya villages  15,000 Sarvodaya villages  30,000 villages • Develop sustainable public-private models of sustaining community training and dissemination of hazard information • Improve multi-lingual, multi-modal Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)

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