We must prepare for natural disasters

WHILE it is good to see that the Government has responded promptly to assessing the damage caused by the earthquake on Monday morning, the biggest challenge now will be how soon can help be given to those affected.
Natural disasters are inevitable – whether it is massive flooding, volcanic eruptions or earthquakes.
The National Disaster Office has confirmed widespread damage in Hela, Southern Highlands, Western and Gulf.
Jiwaka and Western Highlands also reported damage, especially to homes.
Located in the vicinity of the quake affected areas is the Hides Gas Conditioning Plant located in Hela with the pipeline running across the impacted areas in Southern Highlands.
Ok Tedi Mine, the open cast gold and copper mine, is also located west of the quake-affected areas.
While natural disasters are unpredicted, in essence, it is more cost-effective to be prepared than deal with damage, deaths and rebuilding.
Disasters not only cost lives, they also have a severe socio-economic impact on the country.
Disaster officers should prepare beforehand in order to tackle hardships when disaster strikes.
They must be prepared before disaster strikes, and during and after the disaster.
According to United Nations Development Programme disaster risk management, PNG is one of the most disaster-prone countries in the Pacific region.
PNG accounted for 25 per cent of all the natural disasters which occurred in the Pacific between 1950 and 2008.
As such, PNG is among the top six countries in the Asia-Pacific region with the highest percentage of population exposed to earthquakes, and is close behind the Philippines, Indonesia and Vanuatu with the highest percentage of population exposed to severe risks of volcanic eruption.
The biggest challenge is how soon the assessment will be completed and when will support to the affected communities be delivered.
The coordination between Government agencies on the one hand and non-government partners, donors and internal/external development partners must be
effective if help is reach everyone promptly.
From past experience, there is an urgent need to strengthen the current institutional or governance arrangements so as to improve interaction and dialogue on matters of emergency response and as well on disaster risk mainstreaming into planning and budgeting in a manner that will be sustainable to PNG over the longer term.
A UNDP report has highlighted the need for a more comprehensive approach to disaster risk management at the provincial level whereby local stakeholders can be mobilised to identify the root causes of vulnerability and risk and to identify existing and additionally required capacities and measures to address these.
In PNG, natural disasters have consistently affected key sectors of the economy such as agriculture, infrastructure and community livelihoods.
We cannot deny the fact, that there are gaps in the ability to carry out comprehensive risk assessment to support planning and decision-making by Government and non-government agencies.
We have written about this and will say again, that there is a challenge to ensure that an orderly approach is established to ensure that national/sectoral and other agencies are aware of the existence of this hazard and risk information and know how to act on this.