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On
the Edge of Disaster
Each year about 210 million people are affected by Nature's ruthless rage. Most of them are poor and live in developing countries. Millions of lives and money can be saved if the natural disasters are anticipated.
By: Maiken Skeem
Photo: Allan
Duelund
 Flooding,
cyclones, typhoons and earthquakes each year leave their
destructive traces all over the world. Natural disasters
leave people behind with empty hands and broken lives.
Especially the poor people fight an endless and almost
impossible struggle against Nature's havoc. Again and
again Nature ruins their existence, smash their houses
and kills their friends and family. Again and again
they pick up the broken pieces of their lives and try
to glue them together even though they know that it
is only a question of time before Nature will put them
to the test again. But they don't have any choice. Often
they are forced to live in places where no one else
would live, in the world's most vulnerable places, on
the edge of disaster. South Asia is one of the areas
where Nature is especially difficult and the consequences
are often catastrophic. An enormous and extremely poor
population makes the area especially vulnerable. First
and foremost it is a question of survival and people
rarely have the energy to think about what they can
do next time flooding or a cyclone hit their area and
how they can prevent damage or loss of lives. This is
where local humanitarian organisations can have a crucial
role to play. They will not only provide
the poor people with relief in the wake of the disaster,
but in their every day work to fight poverty they also
inform about how to prevent the often horrific extent
of damages and loss of lives. This will leave the population
in the disaster prone areas better prepared when Nature
again will put them through the test. DanChurchAid and
it's partners in India, Bangladesh and Nepal work together
in the network AZEECON (Asian Zone Emergency and Environment
Co-operation Network). Having received funds from EU's
humanitarian aid office (ECHO) they try through training
and education to prepare the population in particularly
disaster prone areas. The partner-organisations gather
people from the village in order to discuss, inform
and to prepare the people as much as possible to the
next meeting with a raging Nature. The purpose is most
of all to minimize the loss of human life but also to
utilize the economical resources in a more appropriate
way. It is after all more efficient and economical to
prevent than to tidy up.
Joined hands
The training of the villagers in the disaster prone
areas is to a considerable extent built on the villagers
own knowledge about the results of a disaster. Many
of them know how to prevent the catastrophe but there
is no tradition for sharing this information with the
neighbours and try to get organised and join hands.
A simple initiative like planting banana trees next
to the house can in a emergency situation mean a difference
between life and death. The stem can easily be transformed
into a primitive raft and keep you afloat if flooding
occurs. Some of the villagers know that already but
they don't think about passing the advice on to the
neighbour. The organisations try to keep the villagers
on standby and establish a sort of Civil Defence Forces.
A group of key-persons from the village are selected
to map the village and to make a plan of evacuation.
They are to find out who are the most vulnerable in
the village, who will need extra help, for example old,
sick and handicapped people, who has a boat which can
be used to rescue people, and who will listen to the
radio.
The task of the organisations is first and foremost
to make the villagers join hands and exchange ideas
so that they are as well prepared as possible when the
disaster comes. It is about gathering the villagers,
make them discuss the consequences of a disaster and
create a feeling of community and solidarity - and of
course encourage them to take action.
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India:
The small village of Dharijana
is situated in the north-western state of Orissa.
Placed only two kilometres from the Bay of Bengal
and between two rivers Dharijana is surrounded
by water. A walk through the narrow and muddy
streets of the village witness that the 450 villagers
know what it means to be prisoners of Nature.
Many of the palm-trees do not sway in the wind
any longer. They lie broken and withered on the
ground. Most of the mud-built houses don't have
a roof but are covered by blue plastic. During
the years Dharijana has witnessed a vast number
of n floodings, orcans and typhones.
The members of the Mallick
family particularly recall the orcan of 1999,
which killed 52 of their neighbours:
"Our house was in an
open field. The wind grew more and more violent
and the waterlevel rose rapidly. We clung to each
other inside the house hoping not to loose sight
of one another. All of a sudden one of the walls
of the house was taken by the water and we realized
that if we decided to stay in the house all of
us would be taken by the water within few minutes.
We started to move towards some trees not far
from the house. My parents did not have the strength
to swim all the way, they disappeared in the dark
and muddy water. My sister-in-law carried my youngest
son but she did not have the force to hold him,
clinging to the tree and fighting the current
at the same time. She tried to hand him over to
me but I lost my grip and he disappeared just
like my parents," Sidheswar Mallick cries
silently but finds the strength to continue his
horrible story:
"That day my own son
died in front of my eyes. I thought that it would
be the very last day of my own life. For three
days we sat in the trees. We did not eat and we
did not drink. The water below us was salt. We
only survived because it was raining and we were
able to suck the water out of our clothes. As
soon as the water level sank so much that we could
touch the ground we managed to get to the only
stone house in the village. Here we found other
survivors. After 12 days the relief reached us."
Mr. And Mrs. Mallick lost
two sons and three daughters during the flooding
in 1999. To prevent another disaster they take
part in a disaster prevention project carried
out by LWS-India (Lutheran World Service India).
LWS-India is supported by DanChurchAid by means
from ECHO, the relief office of the European Union.
"I am still full of
fear when I think about that a new disaster might
hit us. But at least now thanks to LWS-India we
started discussing what we can do to minimize
the hazards and reduce the effects. Some of the
suggestions of LWS we know already but we never
sat down in order to discuss what we can do ourselves
and how we work together most efficiently. I believe
that our chance to survive another disaster is
better now that we know how to cooperate. During
the flooding of 1999 a man in the village heard
that a storm was on its way, but he did not know
the meter-system. When they said on the radio
that the waterlevel would raise up till ten meters
he thought that they meant ten feet. (3.3 meter).
I am more confident know that we learned how to
prevent and how to take action," says Sidheswar
Mallick.
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Bangladesh:
In northern Bangladesh on
the vast Brahmaputra River the Char people live
according to Nature's laws. Flooding and erosion
force them to lead a nomadic life.
From May to September when the melted water runs
from the nearby Himalayas into the arms of the
Brahmaputra River, the flood rises alarmingly.
The river floods the sandbars and forces the Char
people to leave their houses and their fields.
When the tide begins to go out, erosion greedily
consumes the sandbars. The houses and fields of
the Char dwellers are drawn into the deep of the
river.
The meeting with the violent
water is hard to forget for Mr. Abdul Hossein:
"I remember everything
as clearly as if it happened yesterday. The terrible
day in 1998, when the river flooded. We ran like
we had never run before until we reached the boat.
We were 22 persons on board clinging to each other
in the raging storm. We were surrounded by huge
waves. Personal belongings and dead animals were
floating around the boat. All of a sudden the
boat started sinking. Fortunately another boat
passed by and saved us all by throwing ropes in
the water. I'm still haunted by the sight of an
old lady being drawn down by the violent current.
Her eyes were full of fear."
Also Mr. Abdul Hosseins neighbour
Mrs. Golapi Khartoum recall the bad memories:
"Every year when the
time of flooding is approaching I get nervous
and tense. I constantly fear the river will affect
my family's life and me in a negative way. I often
think of when I was only eight years old. My two
sisters and I were playing in the peanut field
when the river started flooding. My parents took
us to my father's raft heading towards another
Char. Suddenly my sister lost her grip and fell
into the black and whirling water. We all panicked
but fortunately my father managed to catch her
and get her back on the raft."
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Nepal:
Every year when the monsoon
begins in the village of Ilam in the south-eastern
Nepal is in danger. Heavy masses of mud slide
down the surrounding mountains and the river running
around Ilam starts to flood. Each year the 2000
villagers face the same problems. The water goes
into their houses and pollutes their drinking
water. Diarea and other diseases invade the village.
LWF-Nepal (Lutheran World Federation Nepal), DanChurchAid's
partner started education and training of the
villagers with financial support from ECHO. They
learn how to minimize the effect of a disaster
and how to prevent a disaster from being a major
disaster. Today many of the villagers have showed
up in the local school to attend the LWF meeting.
"We prevent the disaster by helping each
other making our houses safe. We construct the
houses on bamboo-sticks so that the water will
not reach the floor level. We can minimize the
effects of the disaster but we can't prevent it
completely though. Every year somebody has their
house flooded and they loose their belongings.
We help them by collecting money in the village
and by constructing a new house without charge,"
tells one of the participants.
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Disaster Preparedness
- "DanChurchAid will
during 2002 receive 450.000 EUR for a Disaster
Preparedness programme. Funding agency is ECHO
(European Community Humanitarian Office).
- DanChurchAid implements
the Disaster Preparedness programme in cooperation
with its partners in Bangladesh (RDRS), India
and Nepal (Lutheran World Service). All implementing
organisations are members of and work under
the AZEECON network (Asian Zone Emergency &
Environment Cooperation Network).
- The purpose of the programme
is to enable to communities to cope with the
consequences of natural disasters.
- In Bangladesh the major
purpose of the programme is to reduce the consequences
of flooding and erosion in the north western
part of the country, particularly in the Chars.
- In India the programme
aims to reduce the consequences of flooding
caused by hurricanes in Orissa.
- In Nepal the programme
aims at minimizing the destruction caused by
earthquakes, landslides and flooding especially
in the western part of the country.
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