How disaster resilience has saved lives
measure, adds less than a tenth to the cost of a new hospital, while rebuilding virtually doubles the initial cost?
Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the world, regularly experiencing earthquakes, tsunamis, flooding and drought. one of the deadliest tsunamis in history killed some 230,000 people in 14 countries around the Indian Ocean—nearly 170,000 of them in Indonesia. The country’s post-tsunami efforts included the construction of evacuation centers linked to road networks in Banda Aceh, which also provided lessons on preparedness.
Evacuation centers and robust routes are going to be increasingly important to the Philippines.
With the added danger of global warming, zoning regulations to restrict new developments in hazardprone areas and building codes to protect homes and businesses are critical to minimizing the kind of disruption to supply chains and information networks that took place during the Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
Such measures, however, are tough to implement because of con livelihood on the one hand and their safety on the other. With rising sea levels and temperatures, previous norms for the safe distance to live from a coastline in the Philippines have become obsolete.
With the heightened frequency of - ing for disaster management will be increasingly necessary.
The Philippines has improved intra- government coordination and has put in place dedicated institutions to deal with calamities. But the government and external financiers need to allocate far more to the rebuilding of lives and livelihoods, especially for the poor and vulnerable.
We have also seen high payoffs to investing in education, information sharing, and capacity development. In light of this, the Asian Institute of Management will launch a program for leadership in disaster resilience. The new program will kick off with a high-level conference on 29 November 2017 at the AIM campus in Makati.
The new norm for weather-related disasters calls for far greater defenses, especially in Southeast Asia where the Philippines too often bears the brunt of these heightened risks.
Building disaster resilience with far more financing and stronger leadership from government and the private sector directed squarely at crisis and risk management, and then building climate resilience into every development project needs to become the law of the land.