GOVERNMENTS should act to protect people from disasters rather than waiting for them to happen as cleaning up a catastrophe is four times more expensive than putting preventative measures in place.
In its “World Disasters Report 2009”, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies says inadequate implementation of disaster prevention measures is leading to “lasting poverty and despair for people which can be avoided”.
According to the Red Cross, 2008 was the second deadliest year in terms of disasters after 2004, when the Indian Ocean tsunami occurred. Some 138,336 people were killed or presumed dead after Cyclone Nargis in Burma, and a further 87,476 died following an earthquake in the Sichuan province in China.
At the launch of the report in Dublin, Peter Rees-Gildea, a disaster expert working with the Red Cross, said that developing pre-emptive warning and defence systems can save lives and money and ensure people are in a better position to recover after a disaster.
“For example, in Mozambique the communities have been given wind-up radios that allow them to pick up early warning messages from the government, which allows them to activate an evacuation plan,” he said.
“They first move the elderly, prepare evacuation shelters and then get the children together. They’ve already agreed what possessions they’re allowed to take and it is very simple and practical things like this that save lives, but a lot of communities are not getting these messages.”
Mr Rees-Gildea said governments should take action before disasters strike by donating funds to develop preventative measures which would end up saving them money in the long term.
Minister of State for Overseas Development Peter Power said prevention of disasters was better than cure. “Frontloaded money is much better spent than providing for very expensive disaster and humanitarian relief afterwards,” he said.
The amount of funding provided to aid agencies by the Government has fallen by 22 per cent, some €195 million, since last summer, and Mr Power said he did not know if further cuts would follow in December’s budget.
