by Ruth Ritchie

As part of the United Nation’s International Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction (ISDR), the second week of October annually is dedicated towards reducing the risk of disasters. In her address on International Disaster Reduction Day on 12 October 2006,  Eastern Cape Premier Nosimo Balindlela spoke about the devastation in the latest floods in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality and indicated that “it was time that the province have systems ready to manage the disasters that continue to befall us”.

The new Disaster Management Act, 2002 (Act 57 of 2002) provides for the necessary framework to deal effectively with disasters, prevent and mitigate the effects of disasters as well as recover from disasters. The Act became operational on 1 April 2004 for National and Provincial Government and 1 July 2004 for municipalities. The two-year window period allowed for implementation is now over, placing a huge responsibility on all three spheres of government to get their acts together in terms of disaster management.

The Disaster Management Act is aimed at:

• preventing or reducing the risk of disasters;
• emergency preparedness;
• mitigating the severity or consequences of disasters;
• effective response to disasters; and
• post-disaster recovery and rehabilitation.

The recent opening of the Chris Hani Disaster Management Centre, described by Premier Nosimo Balindlela as “a successful milestone in the safety management of our province”, demonstrates a degree of commitment towards the implementation of the Disaster Management Act in the Eastern Cape. Closer to home, Buffalo City Municipality assures visitors to their website of their readiness in the form of a “comprehensive set of plans to deal with a range of emergencies through their disaster management centre”. But meeting the requirements of the Act does not necessarily translate into readiness.

In 2005 Executive Manager of Disaster Management Mr Buys cautioned that “disasters turn back the development clock, destroying years of effort and labour and perpetuating poverty for those already poor”. He went on to explain how “on a city and national level they destroy investments and infrastructure and drain national budgets and municipal development funds”. More alarmingly, he admitted that “disasters are rarely, if ever, included within planning and development strategies”. According to the Act, the onus lies with the National Disaster Management Centre to ensure that disaster risk reduction measures and strategies are factored into municipalities’ IDPs. Disaster managers and role players need to put additional emphasis on awareness programmes to create a shift in mindset towards integrating disaster risk reduction into all planning whether it is at national, provincial, local, household and even personal level. Risk reduction can range from educating people in first aid and what to do if disasters occur, to reforesting an unstable slope to prevent landslides to protecting coastlines from tsunamis.

Establishing strategic partnerships between government and various role players is a crucial challenge to the actualisation of the UN vision of “building disaster-resilient communities by reducing risk”. A “culture of prevention” is promoted involving the active participation of the community in the design of strategies in collaboration with local authorities, NGOs, CBOs, emergency services and church/school groups. Preparedness is seen as the key to successful disaster management; the aim being to make communities less vulnerable to disaster. Compliance with disaster management legislation and the effectiveness of co-ordinated interventions in disaster risk reduction can only be measured in response to an actual emergency. A sobering thought, especially in the light of safety preparations for the 2010 World Cup.

Sources
1. Address by the Premier Ms Nosimo Balindelea on International Disaster Reduction Day.
2. Buys, LJ. (19-20 April 2005) Disaster Management Act, 2002. Challenges of Fire and Floods in Human Settlements
3. Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa Conference Resolutions 2005

The Local Government Transformer, Dec 2006/Jan 2007