Community-Based Disaster

Management

Inadequate resources, no engineering standards and a lack of awareness intensify the loss of life, property and community vitality.

Landslide in InquisiviDeveloping nations are extremely vulnerable to natural hazards and extreme events. They lack the infrastructure to respond quickly, the social network to help the victims recover financially and psychologically, and the material wealth to adequately prepare, rebuild and reduce their future risk. In developing nations, rural communities either rely on under-staffed and under-funded government agencies or international aid organizations to provide vital post-disaster services. When these agencies fail to quickly reach isolated communities and restore basic life services, disease and unsanitary conditions often increase the loss of life and property. In order to minimize damage caused by this delay, rural communities must be self-reliant and have the capability to undertake initial recovery steps.

River undercutting houses in Quime To make communities self-reliant,TERRA adopts a Community Based Disaster Management Model (CBDM). This model uses local resources and capacities to increase:

    (1) increase the community's abilities to prepare for natural disasters,
    (2) enable the community to respond quick and with organization,
    (3) minimize the loss and damage of life and property.

TERRA realizes that each community faces distinct hazards and has unique strengths and weaknesses. For example, a community that has a bulldozer can repair a landslide obstructed road faster than a community that has to manually excavate the road. Additionally each community has varying cultural, religious and social issues that will determine how that community responds to a disaster. For example, the male population traditionally has received the technical training. However, in communities where a large percent of the men seasonally work in other regions, the women must be trained to maintain and repair critical infrastructure.

Base Upon a CBDM model, TERRA takes the following steps when implementing disaster management:

  • Geologic and geographic hazard analysis: Identifies probable disasters and maps high-risk areas,
  • "Poverty mapping:" characterizes areas using social indicators,
  • Integrate geographic hazard analysis with poverty mapping to comprehensively characterize a community's risk to natural disasters,
  • Analyzes community strengths and weaknesses,
  • Work with a community to design and implement programs and projects to fortify these weaknesses,
  • Create an operational methodology for responding to, coping with and recovering from a disaster,
  • Impliment early warning systems in appropriate areas.