Friday, September 14, 2018

Consequences and management of Natural Disasters – How best to handle – lessons to be learnt from Puerto Rico



It is clear from reading the article in the link below on this week’s revelation that the death toll from the Hurricane Maria that hit Puerto Rico A YEAR AGO was revised only this week from 64 to 3,000, that even in the USA there is utter confusion on how to handle a disaster. Don’t forget the USA has natural disasters frequently almost every 6 months and they still have to get their act together in putting procedures in place to make sure those MOST VULNERABLE are immediately assisted.


When reading the article in details there are so many areas that must be considered and is a case study, I will recommend to Sri Lanka’s Disaster Management Ministry to read carefully and understand how systems must be in place to minimize the effect of a disaster.

We in Sri Lanka do not have to re-invent the wheel and we can easily use the examples of others to better manage disasters, as it is a science worthy of a degree at University, on disaster management and mitigation, a course a Private University cold set up in Sri Lanka as a world first to attract students from all over the world to follow!

Please be mindful that climate change is upon us and soon the Maldive Islands will disappear with their citizens needing to be re-settled. So it is a matter on our doorstep anyway.

The article even talks about doctors not being trained properly to assess the real reason a death occurred and instead put the reason of the final medical rationale, but what predicated that heart attack or other trauma that speeded death. This is just one aspect of preparedness and directing resources to where it is needed.

Today, 17 districts of 25 are suffering drought, and the most urgent aspect of that is potable water for people and something as simple as that in a small country, has not been properly managed, when you have computer systems, and communications to manage the movement of trucks of water from places there is plenty of it, to places that are in need, which can be done within hours, with simple technology, just like how ambulances can be dispatched to an accident scene in the shortest possible time, when you know the location of the accident and the location of the closest available ambulance. It is the will of the state that is lacking to do the simple things that will save lives and prolong others.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sri Lankans love to create disasters. They do not want to learn lessons from others as they either think they know it all, or they do not see the USA as a good example to learn from. It is this arrogance that pervades the Ministry of Disaster Management today, who have hardly done any work in really assessing the true magnitude of the drought, as it is affecting some places more than others, and they still do not have a procedure to make sure those most at risk are immediately assisted.

In a small country the size of Sri Lanka if the Public Services are so incompetent, it is time to abolish the public service altogether and privatize even disaster management, as they will be able to do a faster job and even identify areas of need and merely bill the state for the services rendered and that will much cheaper than keeping jokers in jobs calling themselves disaster management staff and experts, who do nothing sitting in their offices, while people are suffering

Anonymous said...

Its true, the IT is simply restricted to a high tech website that no doubt would have cost a lot of money, but why should the ministry be in Colombo 7 anyway?

Here is the web link to the Ministry http://www.disastermin.gov.lk/web/