Inter-relationship between

Disasters and Development

Lecture-8

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,JIIT-128,Noida

1
Disaster, Environment, Development

Disasters - Development
- Conflict - Water
- Natural Disasters - Health
- Population - Education
- Migration - Reducing Risk - Environment
- Enhancing Security - Poverty

Human
- Environment
- Built
Security
- Air
- Land
- Sea
2
 Disaster and Development Cycle

3
 Relevance of indigenous knowledge,
⚫ Indigenous knowledge (IK) is the local knowledge – knowledge that is
unique to a given culture or society. IK contrasts with the international
knowledge system generated by universities, research institutions and
private firms. It is the basis for local-level decision making in
agriculture, health care, food preparation, education, natural-resource
management, and a host of other activities in rural communities.
(Warren 1991)

⚫ Indigenous Knowledge is (…) the information base for a society, which

facilitates communication and decision-making. Indigenous information
systems are dynamic, and are continually influenced by internal
creativity and experimentation as well as by contact with external
systems. (Flavier et al. 1995: 479)
4
 Priorities in the acute emergency phase include

⚫ Facilities for people to excrete safely and hygienically

⚫ Protecting water supplies from contamination

⚫ Minimum amount of water for drinking, cooking and personal and domestic hygiene

⚫ Ensuring people have enough water containers to collect and store water cleanly

⚫ Ensuring that people have soap for hand washing

⚫ Ensuring that people have sufficient cooking utensils, equipment and fuel to cook and

store food safely

⚫ Ensuring that people have the knowledge and understanding they need to avoid

disease
⚫ Containing or removing sources of chemical or radiological contamination, or
5
evacuating people, to ensure they are no longer exposed to these hazards.
 Rescue operation

In addition, environmental health workers are likely to be involved in providing:

⚫ Hospitals and medical facilities

⚫ Emergency operation centres

⚫ Potable water supplies for organized rescue teams

⚫ Assessing the risks from hazardous materials and information on the location
of hazards

⚫ Information about high-occupancy buildings

⚫ Emergency water and sanitation for large, isolated and trapped populations

⚫ Handling human and animal corpses

⚫ Direct assistance with the retrieval, transportation and temporary storage of

human bodies.
6
 Shelter and emergency settlements

⚫ Advising on structural integrity for repair of house

⚫ Discouraging from staying in homes that are definitely unsafe

⚫ Informing people about the nearest safe water supply/ measures they can take to ensure
the safety of drinking-water

(filtering, boiling, disinfecting, storing in closed containers, etc.).

⚫ Instructing them in the safe disposal of waste, including where and where not to
defecate, and in the importance of ORS for children with diarrhoea.

⚫ Informing people that water supply may be contaminated. (Sewage, debris).

⚫ Distributing a stock solution of bleach or water chlorination tablets

⚫ Providing blankets and kerosene lanterns for illumination at night.

⚫ Advising on the status of sanitation systems, and

(Providing temporary alternative sanitation facilities)

7
 Reconstruction and shelter
⚫ Involve persons with disabilities in participatory
reconstruction
⚫ Use the expertise of persons with disabilities
for accessible reconstruction
⚫ Use universal design
⚫ Avoid obstacles, steps… in temporary shelter
⚫ Build adapted houses for persons with
disabilities
⚫ Construct all public building using accessibility
codes

8
 Livelihood
⚫Include persons with disabilities and their
families in livelihood assessment
⚫Replace lost/damaged tools and
equipment of persons with disabilities to
help them recover their livelihood
⚫Ensure appropriate vocational training
⚫Adapt if necessary livelihood tools and
equipment
⚫Identify alternative for cash or food for
work schemes
9
 Water supply

Situations demanding emergency water supply response

Short term

⚫ Emergencies affecting rural or unserved periurban communities

⚫ Emergencies in urban situations where a central water service is available

⚫ Emergencies involving population displacement and temporary shelters

Long term

⚫ Displacement emergencies that result in semi permanent emergency

settlements.

10
 Food and nutrition
⚫ Make sure distribution site are accessible
⚫ Monitor rate at which persons with disabilities are
receiving relief (food/non food)
⚫ Set up additional measures to reach injures/disabled
people in their homes or temporary shelters
⚫ Insure utensils to eat are appropriate (spoons, straw…)
⚫ When possible ensure space to eat in privacy
⚫ Persons with disabilities may need additional high
energy food
⚫ Persons with disabilities may need specific diets (ex
liquid based supplements)
⚫ Make sure persons with injuries have extra assistance to
help them eating when necessary
⚫11Monitor the nutritional status of persons with
injuries/disabilities
 Water, sanitation and hygiene
⚫ Ensure that water points, toilets, shower are safe and
accessible
⚫ Prioritize disabled people through special queue to
avoid long waiting time
⚫ Use appropriate communication channels when
disseminating information
⚫ Some persons with disabilities may need specific
hygiene items (diapers…)
⚫ Extend the handle of the water pump
⚫ Non slippery platform and good water evacuation
system
⚫ Latrines should be designed to be used by everyone
⚫ Develop a social network to support persons with
injuries/disabilities
12
⚫ Monitor the access to water for persons with disabilities
 Sanitation
Human waste: Faeces

⚫ Viruses, bacteria and eggs or larvae of parasites.

⚫ Diarrhoea, cholera and typhoid are spread and are major causes of sickness and
death in disasters.

⚫ Intestinal worm infections are transmitted through faeces and spread rapidly where
open defecation occurs and people are barefoot.

⚫ Contribute to anemia and malnutrition, and also render people more susceptible to
other diseases.

⚫ Children are especially vulnerable to all the above infections.

⚫ Specific measures should be taken to prevent the spread of infection

(e.g. chlorinating water supply, providing hand-washing facilities)

13
The first priority is to isolate and contain faeces.
 Rural emergencies

Floods

⚫ Repair or replacement of pumps

⚫ Repair of spring catchments

⚫ Repair of gravity supply pipes and distribution systems; and providing steel or
plastic tanks to replace broken concrete reservoirs.

It is common to find in rural areas that a significant proportion of water supply

installations are out of order, owing to long-term problems with maintenance
and repair.

14
 Urban emergencies
Drought
⚫ Even if people do not migrate for food but for water they do !

⚫ Diseases like trachoma and scabies, increase during droughts.

⚫ The incidence of diarrhoea and waterborne diseases such as cholera also increase

(Intensive use of a small number of water supplies vulnerable to contamination)

⚫ Drought itself constitute an emergency, even if reserves of cash, food and livestock are
sufficient to avoid food shortages.

⚫ Water quantity is an absolute priority and health staff should cooperate with the
government public works or water-supply departments, and with NGO

⚫ During droughts, there is also often a problem of water quality,

⚫
15Water trucking may be needed following disasters that affect water supplies
 Assessment of damage

Urban areas
⚫ Contamination of the water source

⚫ Damage to the water-treatment works, including structural damage, mechanical

damage, loss of power supply and contamination due to flooding

⚫ Damage to pumping stations

⚫ Pressure failure in all or part of a water distribution network, allowing

backflow
⚫ Badly repaired plumbing in domestic or public buildings, resulting in back

siphonage
⚫ Failure to disinfect a contaminated source correctly, or to maintain adequate
16 chlorine residual throughout the system.
 Safe water needs

⚫ For the general population

15-20 litres per day per person

⚫ For operating water-borne sewerage systems

20-40 litres per day per person

⚫ In mass feeding centres

20-30 litres per day per person

⚫ In field hospitals and first-aid stations

40-60 litres per day per person

⚫ For livestock accompanying displaced persons and refugees

30 litres per day per cow or camel
17
15 litres per day per goat or other small animal.
 Mass feeding centers

Facilities needed at mass feeding centers

⚫ Water supplies

⚫ Toilets for staff and users

⚫ Hand-washing facilities

⚫ Facilities for dealing with liquid wastes from kitchens

⚫ Facilities for dealing with solid wastes from kitchens

⚫ Adequate and appropriate materials for cooking/refrigeration

⚫ Adequate and appropriate materials for eating

⚫
18
Control of rodents and other pests
Health
⚫ Record system of health services including disability and injury
specific information.

⚫ Collate a list of services that can be provided to persons with

disabilities and injuries

⚫ Ensure that health staff know the different and specialized services
available

⚫ Build a clear referral system to the specialized services

⚫ Orient health staff on how to address the specific needs of persons

with disabilities/injuries

⚫ Follow up to ensure that after discharge they are recovering well

and their health needs are continuing to be met

⚫19Provide them/families with copies of medical records in case they

 Vectors and diseases likely to be present in emergency settlements

Vector Main diseases

Mosquitoes Malaria, yellow fever, dengue, viral encephalitis, Filariasis

Houseflies Diarrhoea, dysentery, conjunctivitis, typhoid fever, trachoma

Cockroaches Diarrhoea, dysentery, salmonellosis, cholera

Lice Endemic typhus, pediculosis, relapsing fever, trench fever

Bed bugs Severe skin inflammation

Ticks Rickettsial fever, relapsing fever, viral encephalitis

Rodent (mites) Rickettsial pox, scrub typhus

Rodent (fleas) Bubonic plague, endemic typhus

Rodents Rat bite fever, leptospirosis, salmonellosis

20 (specially after flood, eg: Surat and Mumbai)

 Disease control

o Diagnosis and treatment

o Vector control
o Environmental hygiene
o Personal protection

Nuisance control

o Identification of the causative agent

o Environmental hygiene
o Personal protection

21
 Environmental management

⚫ Control of mosquito breeding

Leveling land, filling borrow pits and draining flooded

areas, screening of water containers

⚫ Human activities, that concern food production, eating, drinking, sleeping,

defecation and laundering, can promote the propagation of vectors and pests or
affect contacts between humans and vectors.

⚫ Defecation fields should always be kept at a distance from cooking areas,

because of flies and possible surface rainfall run-off.

22
 Hygiene and personal protection

⚫ Information on hygiene and personal protection should be provided to the

public.

⚫ Personal protection measures

Vaccines, drugs (e.g. for prophylaxis*)

Pesticides (e.g. in impregnated mosquito nets)

Promoted by qualified health staff and used under their guidance.

⚫ Vulnerable groups

Sick and wounded, children, elderly, pregnant women and people who lack
immunity (including relief workers), need additional protection.
23
 Control of communicable diseases and prevention of epidemics

Preparedness and prevention

⚫ Training health and outreach staff in the identification.

⚫ Creating local stocks of supplies and equipment for diagnosis, treatment
⚫ Strengthening health surveillance systems and practicing protocols
⚫ Raising awareness among the population likely to be affected by a disaster

⚫ Acute respiratory infections and diarrhoea major killers in emergency

⚫ Hygiene promotion
⚫ Provision of adequate quantities of safe water
⚫ Sanitation facilities and appropriate shelter are absolutely necessary
⚫ Measles outbreaks are a common hazard in emergencies
⚫ Early vaccination campaigns should be considered before any cases appear.
24
 Protection
⚫ Locate disabled persons close to essential services
⚫ Set up safe areas to free caregivers to access to relief
services
⚫ Train volunteers from the community to assist persons with
disability
⚫ Provide accompaniment to access legal structure (access,
communication)
⚫ Prioritize reunification efforts
⚫ Monitor access to relief and record assistance
⚫ Set up peer counselling
⚫ Pay specific attention to women and girls with disabilities
⚫ Children with disability are extremely vulnerable

25
 Public health surveillance and outbreak control

⚫ Important to designate specific health staff for public-health surveillance.

⚫ Neighbourhood and community health workers

⚫ Even under the worst conditions of large-scale population movement

⚫ Existing reporting systems can be extended to cover priority diseases

(serious water- and sanitation-related epidemic diseases)

⚫ Typhoid or paratyphoid fever, cholera, typhus, plague, encephalitis or

meningitis, as well as to excessive numbers of poisonings (including food
poisoning) or cases of malaria.

(Histories/Contact identification/source of disease)

26
 Flexibility to rescue team

⚫ Coordination of emergency response activities.

⚫ Basic facilities for emergency personnel

⚫ Security and safety needs of personnel.

⚫ Psychological needs of personnel

⚫ Transportation and logistics

⚫ Some special consideration

▪ When to declare an emergency ?

▪ When to seek for support from outside ?

▪ When to seek for International assistance ?

▪ Zone of disaster and who should move out and who should move in ?

27
▪ Administrative obligations
 Special incidents: Chemical and Radiation emergencies

Chemical incidents affect people in a number of ways:

⚫ Effects of explosion

⚫ Effects of fire

⚫ Toxic effects of the chemicals

Common measures to reduce the health risks of chemical incidents:

⚫ Registering all chemicals in commercial establishments

⚫ Clearly labelling all chemicals in transit

⚫ Rapidly notifying the chemical incident emergency

⚫
28 Decontaminating land or water already contaminated by waste disposal.
 Mortuary services and handling of the dead

⚫ Dead/decayed human bodies do not generally create a serious health hazard

⚫ Unless they are polluting sources of drinking-water with faecal matter

⚫ Or infected with plague or typhus

⚫ Families may carry out all the necessary activities following a death

⚫ Special issues which should be given notice are:

o Recovery of the dead

o Organization of the mortuary
o Identification of the dead
o Handling the dead

Disposal of animal dead body/ Caracas specially in

29 flood situation
 Health promotion and community participation

Public awareness raising /mobilization programmes play an essential part in

reducing disaster vulnerability by:

⚫ Increasing public awareness of environmental health hazards

⚫ Informing people how disasters can be prevented/ impact can be reduced

⚫ Increasing people’s awareness of the threats to health

⚫ Encouraging people to participate in protecting :

▪ Themselves

▪ Environment

▪ Health services

From disaster and the effects of disaster.

30
 Communications activities

⚫ Education in schools for children and adolescents

⚫ Special education programmes for adults

▪ Specifically on disaster preparedness

▪ As an integral part of ongoing health or development programmes

⚫ Public information through the mass media

⚫ Information and mobilization through local organizations

31
 Education
⚫ Ensure school building accessibility
⚫ Install adequate handrails, build ramps, doors, toilets, floors…
⚫ Identify children who are not participating in your activities
⚫ Give specific support, make them feel welcome
⚫ Make sure someone in your team understands inclusive
education
⚫ Support teachers to develop understanding and confidence
⚫ Address language issues by supporting teaching in sign
language and other means of communication
⚫ Encourage peer support (teacher to teacher, children to
children)
⚫ Be committed to challenging resistance to greater inclusion

32
 Current initiatives (Indian perspective)

⚫ The India Disaster Resource Network (IDRN) initiated by the Ministry of

Home affairs in collaboration with the UNDP.

⚫ Organised Information system for collection and transmission of specific

equipments and expertise database .

⚫ Quick decision in mobilising equipments and skilled human resources during

emergencies.

⚫ Involvement of Panchayati Raj Institutions, Urban Local Bodies and the

NGO’s for complete, coordinated effort.

▪ Culture of Preparedness
▪ Culture of Quick Response
▪ Culture of Strategic Thinking
33 ▪ Culture of Prevention
 4 functional groups assigned with specific tasks are:

Functional Group 1: Hazard Mitigation

Functional Group 2: Preparedness and Capacity Building

Functional Group 3: Relief and Response

Functional Group 4: Administration and Finance

34
People with disabilities in the aftermath of
disasters
⚫ Persons with severe injuries
When disaster strikes people will experience physical and
psychological traumas. In line with first medical attention, specific
attention to prevent secondary complication and disability and
ensure appropriate rehabilitation, follow-up and referral
⚫ Persons with impairment leading to disability
When victims have acquired impairment as a consequence of
disaster, ensuring that people access to early rehabilitation
services to facilitate recovery and to minimize disabilities as well as
long term planning of services to ensure follow-up and
comprehensive rehabilitation process
⚫ Persons with previous disability
Persons with disabilities are part of any society, (This includes
persons with chronic diseases such as diabetes; epilepsy that
unattended could lead on a long-term period of disability). Ensure
their visibility and their access to all relief activities with the
35
objective to prevent worsening of disabilities and their participation
 Specific vulnerabilities

⚫ Disabled people tend to be invisible in emergency

registration system
⚫ Lack of awareness about disability among humanitarian
organizations
⚫ Disabled people are more affected by changes in
environment resulting from disasters
⚫ Inadequate physical Accessibility, loss or lack of
mobility aids or appropriate assistance deprive them
from rescue, evacuation, access to relief, safe location,
adequate shelters…
⚫ Emotional distress and trauma have more long term
consequences
⚫ Communication difficulties
36
 Addressing needs
⚫Persons with disabilities have difficulty
moving, hearing, seeing, communicating
and/or learning
⚫They have the same needs and perform the
same activities as other members of the
community (eating, washing, working…)
⚫Persons with disabilities may need specific
support related to their disability and their
living environment (assistive devices,
caregiver, adapted environment or
equipment…)
37
 Right based approach
The UN Convention: its relevance and significance for humanitarian
and emergency
WorkUN Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the
The
Rights and Dignity of Persons with
Disabilities was adopted in December 2006 and opened for
signature on 30 March 2007. Ireland has signed the convention

The Convention underlines and reinforces the legal and

political recognition of disability as a human rights issue. This
Convention is tailored to protect and defend persons with
disabilities against the specific risks and vulnerabilities they
experience to their human rights, their right to equality and
non-discrimination (both direct and indirect).

International human rights instrument is the first of its kind

to include both a stand alone article on International
Cooperation plus a stand alone article on situations of risk
38and humanitarian emergencies
 Article 11 on Risk and Humanitarian
Emergencies
⚫ Article 11 requires that States take all necessary
measures to ensure that persons with disabilities are
protected under international law in situations of risk.
Article 11 - Situations of risk and humanitarian
emergencies
States Parties shall take, in accordance with their obligations under
international law, including international humanitarian law and
international human rights law, all necessary measures to ensure
the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of
risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian
emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters.
What we mean by ‘Situations of Risk’
Situations of risk include armed conflict, complex
humanitarian emergencies and natural disasters.
The World Health Organisation defines ‘situations of risk’ as:
- Sudden catastrophe (such as natural and/or man-made disasters)
39
- Complex and continuous emergencies (such as violent conflict)
 practice:
⚫ Persons with disabilities and children with disabilities
need to be considered as a key target group across all
intervention processes from identification, assessment
and planning, delivery of support programs, monitoring
and evaluation.

⚫ Local organizations of persons with disabilities, and

parents of children with disabilities, together with NGOs
working in the field of disability should be involved
and consulted by humanitarian agencies to ensure the
needs of persons with disabilities are recognised.

⚫ Action and care is needed by humanitarian aid agencies

to pro-actively seek-out persons with disabilities
to ensure they are registered and supported in a
humanitarian situation, as they are often hidden away
40
•Sectoral agencies must include the needs of
persons with disabilities, including with regard to
disability access, in their operations (including shelter,
water and sanitation, food distribution, health activities,
education).

•Funding for post-conflict and post-disaster interventions

needs to include persons with disabilities in a more
tailored way, both to support persons with disabilities as
beneficiaries of assistance and also as a means to
enable persons with disabilities to be included as part of
the community response to the disaster or the
emergency.

•Donor agencies should include, in their funding

41
guidelines, information about systematic universal
 Disability checklist for emergency
response
General protection and inclusion principles of
persons with disabilities
⚫ What do we mean by Inclusion in the context of
Humanitarian Assistance?
The full and equal participation, involvement and
assistance to, persons with disabilities in all aspects of
the humanitarian intervention process. To achieve
disability inclusion, pro-active methods are needed to
seek out and locate persons with disabilities living in
the poorest communities where they are often hidden
away by their families or are invisible for the simple
fact that they are socially excluded and/or less
independently mobile than non-disabled persons in
42 the community.
 • Protect public health
• Protect environment and reduce risks
• Opportunity for saving costs / income generation
• Support sustainable livelihoods
• Ensure all wastes and necessary approvals covered
• Reduce future risks and liabilities
• Ensure proper Health & Safety for workers

43
 Question
⚫ What types of disasters are most likely to affect your country?
⚫ Which sectors of your country’s economy are most likely to be affected by disasters?
Hurricanes (Case Studies)
⚫ In 1979, Hurricane David hit the Dominican Republic. Several days later, Hurricane
Frederick also hit the island. The combination of high speed winds and the subsequent
floods caused widespread destruction of housing, agricultural infrastructure,
production, electric utilities, supplies of potable water, and of the physical
infrastructure in general as well as of the environment.
An estimated 2100 people died in the storms. This number could have been far higher
had it not been for an early warning system and an evacuation plan. More than
600,000 people (10% of the country’s population) were left homeless. It was not
possible to obtain reliable figures on injured persons or on those left unemployed. The
direct losses of these disasters were estimated at $842 million.
Indirect economic losses were estimated at a $464 million deficit in the balance of
payments. This was due to an increase in imports of post-disaster necessities and
decreased exportation of bananas and other crops. The fiscal deficit increased by $303
million because of increased expenses related to aid, rehabilitation and reconstruction
and to a decreased income from exports (see figure 2).
⚫ The gross domestic product grew at a more rapid rate during the years that followed
the disaster. This was due, at least in part, to a prior economic recession caused by
increased oil prices. Limited information is available about the effects of inflation and
about fluctuations in monetary reserves after these disasters.*

44
 References:
⚫https://www.un.org/development/desa/disa
bilities/convention-on-the-rights-of-persons-
with-disabilities/article-11-situations-of-risk-
and-humanitarian-emergencies
⚫http://www.nzdl.org/cgi-bin/library.cgi?e=d-
00000-00---off-0aedl--00-0----0-10-0---0---
0direct-10---4-------0-1l--11-en-50---20-
about---00-0-1-00-0-0-11-1-0utfZz-8-
00&cl=CL1.1&

45