The Significance Of Disaster

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF DISASTER

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Introduction:-

2. The significance of disaster in today’s environment sometimes comes under question. Why do we need to bother so much? After all, disaster has been with us as long as recorded history, and presumably even longer. Generations of people have had to withstand disaster. They have suffered the consequences and recovered from them, and life has continued on. Basically, this is true. However, there are certain factors which need to be considered in relation to the modern challenges which face disaster management.

The Traditional Disaster Threat:-

3. The first factor is that there has not been very much reduction in what might be called the traditional disaster threat. Most of the old problems remain, as threatening as ever. Natural phenomena such as earthquakes, cyclones, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, wild tires, floods, landslides and droughts still persist. So do their basic man-made counterparts, such as major accidents. These disasters continue to cause grievous human casualties, economic and social loss, and damage to the environment. It is certainly true that we have learned to cope with these problems to some extent. But we have neither eliminated nor contained them. So, whilst we may have modified their effects in various ways, they continue to �inflict unacceptable pressure on a world population which, in terms of total subsistence, is already finding it difficult to make ends meet.

4. In fact, some of the longstanding threats have grown more severe. For example, m the 1920s the risk from air disaster was insignificant few aircraft were in the air and a collision between two of them would have killed only a handful of people at most. Now, as the 20th century comes to a close, the air disaster risk has increased enormously. More and more aircraft fill the already overcrowded airspaces of the world, especially around capital cities. A collision between two of them can amount to catastrophe. In 1977, a collision in the Azores between two passenger-carrying jets resulted in the deaths of 561 people; and one of these aircraft was still on the ground at t1ie time. In 1988, a total of 270 people lost their lives following the terrorist, sabotage of an airliner over Scotland.

5. With some of the other longstanding threats, we ourselves have added to the risks increasing popu1ation alone has forced people to live in prone areas which, previously, would not have been regarded as habitable. This fact tends to apply particularly in developing countries. For instance, human settlement has been allowed to develop in the flood-prone areas of major river systems; also on low-atoll islands which are subject to indundation from the sea. The chain effects are sometimes disturbing. Sea indundation can cause over-salinity of crop-growing land, food shortages follow and populations may be forced into crises of subsistence, or even famine, leading perhaps to migration and refugee problems.

6. What is often seen as progress can, in fact, represent a backward step. In some cyclone-prone countries, traditional building construction designed to cope with high winds, has been modified. Increased population has led to the need for more water, so tin roofing has been introduced to enhance water collection. But a piece of roofing iron, ripped off a house by cyclonic winds, and moving at 100 kilometers an hour, is a very lethal weapon, just as capable of killing people as any modern weapons system. Traditional building materials posed no such threat, mostly being comprised of lightweight wood or similar substances.

The New Disaster Threats:-

7. A second factor which bears upon today’s situation is that new disaster threats have developed, particularly since World War II.

8. Increased social violence has drastically affected many nations and communities Instances of high jacking, terrorism, civil unrest and conflict with conventional arms have become commonplace. These have sometimes. Inflicted intolerable burden on governments and societies whose existence is already precarious because of poor economic and social conditions; this, in turn, has produced additional strains on international assistance sources, thus diluting global counter-disaster effort and capability.

9 New threats have also come from what are generally termed hazardous materials or substances The tragedy of Bhopal in India (1985) ranks paramount in this category, with its estimated toll of 2,500 killed and 10,000 affected in various ways. But the Bhopal’s of this world are in many ways only the highly publicized tip of this particular disaster iceberg. Hazardous materials are shifted around the, transport systems of the world in increasing amounts and sometimes they are dumped in areas which are vital to the world’s future. These materials can constitute a disaster threat which is potentially comparable to those posed by many of the �natural phenomena.

10 The threat from atomic and nuclear sources poses yet another modern problem for disaster management. The explosion in 1986 at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in Russia highlighted the extent and severity of this problem. Apart from those killed and affected by radiation sickness, some 135,000 people had to be evacuated from the area. Radioactive effects from the disaster were measured as far away as 1600 miles and more. These peacetime nuclear problems are likely to persist into the future in a world which increasingly searches for new and greater sources of energy.

11 Whilst the threat from nuclear accidents is disturbing enough, the disaster management problems arising from possible nuclear war are almost beyond comprehension the possibility of global nuclear war may have receded over recent years but the possibility of nuclear weapons being used in some lesser form of conflict cannot be disregarded altogether. Also, it would be unwise to rule out entirely the use of such weapons by fanatical extremist factions. There is the further point that if a country was not directly involved in such nuclear conflict or terrorism, it could well suffer severely from radioactive side-effects.

12. In sum, therefore, it can be said that the new disaster threats contain some unwelcome characteristics, in that they may have extremely far-ranging effects and, at the same time, be difficult to counter.

The Geography of Disaster:-

13. A third factor concerns what might be called the geography of disa4tc It