ActionAid Comment on flood response, climate change and way forward
As flood response continues and questions are raised over shortfalls in
government response, who is hit hardest, possible links to climate change,
and how to prevent the annual monsoon becoming a crisis, ActionAid’s
emergency team comments:
ON GOVERNMENT AND INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE:
P.V. Unnikrishnan, ActionAid's emergencies adviser for Asia says:
“With limited assistance from governments, and humanitarian agencies overstretched, help is still a distant reality for many. The response from the international community has been lukewarm. Time is running out - money is running out,” says
P.V. Unnikrishnan, ActionAid's emergencies adviser for Asia.
“The history of floods shows that attention remains for a couple of weeks or as long as there is media interest but people are left to fend for themselves afterwards,” says
P.V. Unnikrishnan, ActionAid's emergencies adviser for Asia.
WHO IS HIT HARDEST?
“Research shows a disaster of an average scale kills 555 people in a poor country, but just 18 in a rich one. So, it is a question of where a disaster strikes and how rich you are,” says
PV Unnikrishnan, ActionAid's emergencies adviser for Asia.
“Poor people, especially women and children, are the worst affected - homeless and hungry and living under the threat of water-borne diseases like cholera, dysentery, diarrhoea and Hepatitis A,” says
Harjeet Singh, ActionAid emergency response coordinator in India.
CLIMATE CHANGE AND FLOODS
P. V. Unnikrishnan:
“Climate change is definitely amplifying disasters with erratic and unpredictable weather conditions. To recount the weather havoc, in July, we saw floods in South Asia, heavy rains in Northern Europe and Russia and unusual snowfall in South America.”
“You can blame it on climate change or the US (for not signing the Kyoto protocol to reduce carbon emissions that cause global warming) but the poor are suffering more and more. It is high time scientists factored ordinary people into their equations.”
“In Maharashtra’s Vidarbha region where farmer suicides have been rampant, Gadchiroli district is facing heavy flooding. Last week agricultural communities were fearing drought, now there is flooding. Crops have been destroyed but this time by too much rather than too little water. The weather is becoming more and more unpredictable.” says Kamini Ranjit Kapadia of ActionAid.
WAY FORWARD?
P V Unnikrishnan:
“To avoid panic reactions during disasters, governments must invest in disaster preparedness measures.”
‘ActionAid’s work in India and rest of the world shows that investment in disaster-risk reduction is 100 times more cost effective than what we spend after the disaster strikes.”
“Emergency drills in Kashmir, moves to raise awareness among school children and disaster preparedness backed by the European Union Humanitarian Aid and DFiD in Bangladesh and Nepal, show that in areas where there is focus on reducing risk, people’s response is quicker when emergencies strike.”
“Best practice in responding to disasters is to engage local people in relief work – they are the ones who will be there after the cameras have left. If they are not involved in decision making, relief is unlikely to meet the needs of the most vulnerable or to reach the unreached.”
CONTACT:
Alice Wynne Willson
Head of communications,
ActionAid India
