Reuters AlertNet Full site
Homepage | Newsdesk | NGO Latest | Crisis briefings | Country profiles | MediaWatch | Jobs | Alerting | Login

FROM THE FIELD

Disaster preparedness can make the difference
16 May 2008 15:11:00 GMT
 Source: Christian Aid - UK
Judith Melby (jmelby@christian-aid.org)

Website: Website: http://www.christianaid.org.uk

218275 logo

Background

•  China earthquake 2008

•  Myanmar cyclone

MORE >>
The stark contrasts between the responses to the Sichuan earthquake and to the Burmese cyclone have been widely discussed in the past few days.

In China a well-resourced regime deployed within hours thousands of personnel to lead the rescue effort.

Now wider Chinese society is responding to the Party's call by flooding to the scene with more materials and equipment.

Christian Aid's partner the Amity Foundation is on the scene to provide food and shelter for 8,000 families.

The China's leaders have been open as never before in their communications with their people and the world.

Meanwhile to the south Burma's secretive generals are mounting their own modest response to Cyclone Nargis.

They half-obstruct and half-tolerate the local relief efforts that began on 2 May.

These efforts have now scaled up to reach several hundred thousand people.

Community organisations that we have supported for years went into action in rescue boats on Day Zero and are now helping 200,000 survivors.

But two million lives are threatened by hunger and disease, while the junta inches the door open.

As we have said repeatedly in the last two weeks, a huge disaster like this demands an immense and immediate response.

In China that response has come mainly from the state and from society, with requests for some external assistance.

In Burma the regime needs to accept quickly that the bulk of the help should come from outside.

But there is another lesson in all this. Loss of life on the scale that we have seen in the past days can be reduced dramatically where conditions exist to allow people to take control of their own futures.

The delta area of Bangladesh was hit by a cyclone bigger than Nargis last November. About 3,000 souls perished then, certainly a tragedy, but not on the scale of Burma, or to compare with the 140,000 killed by Bangladesh's 1991 cyclone.

The difference was made by disaster preparedness. A more open society had permitted local organisations to enable communities to participate.

And Christian Aid, funded by the UK Government had trained volunteers, built shelters and supplied grassroots early-warning systems like bells, whistles, flags and bicycle-mounted loudspeakers.

As Cyclone Nargis powered up in the Bay of Bengal on May day, in Bangldesh thousands of volunteers urged the coastal populations to move to safety.

Down the coast in the Irrawaddy Delta farmers planting their rice crops had no warning of what was coming their way.




[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Email this article       Send comments

Topics

•  Disaster mitigation

•  Refugees & displacement

•  Security

•  Talking points

•  Working in Relief

MORE >>

Emergencies

•  China earthquake 2008

•  Myanmar cyclone

MORE >>

Members

•  Christian Aid - UK

MORE >>

NGO latest

•  Disaster preparedness can make the difference
Christian Aid - UK

•  Caritas looks to respond to China earthquake
Caritas Internationalis

•  China: Reis, Decken und Planen für 8.000 Familien
Diakonie Katastrophenhilfe - Germany

•  Red Cross looks for ten-fold increase in Aid to help people of Myanmar.
Red Cross - Ireland

•  Red Cross looks for ten-fold increase in Aid to help people of Myanmar.
Red Cross - Ireland

MORE >>

Latest news

•  China buries quake dead as new aftershock hits

•  UNHCR concerned about increasing violence in east Chad

•  Rain deepens Myanmar misery; casualty tolls jump

•  UNHCR distributes aid to 40,000 displaced Somalis near Mogadishu

•  Myanmar cyclone official death toll at 77,738 -TV

MORE >>

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Related articles

Breaking stories
China buries quake dead as new aftershock hits (1 minute ago)

UNHCR concerned about increasing violence in east Chad (1 minute ago)

AlertNet insight
Why not just do air drops in Myanmar? (1 minute ago)

Aid agency news feed
Disaster preparedness can make the difference (1 minute ago)

Blogs
Impartial agencies should be allowed to distribute aid (1 minute ago)

Maps
MAP: Myanmar: Bogale affected areas (as of May, 6) - COSMO-SkyMed satellite imagery analysis (1 minute ago)


Country information

Briefings
China earthquake 2008 - [Who works where]
Myanmar cyclone - [Who works where]

Topics
Disaster mitigation Refugees & displacement Security Talking points Working in Relief
Facts & figures
China Myanmar (formerly Burma)

Del.icio.us Del.icio.us  |   Digg Digg  |   NewsVine NewsVine  |   Reddit Reddit   
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-05-16T145358Z_01_BEC115_RTRIDSP_2_QUAKE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/BEC115.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-05-16T145108Z_01_BEI315_RTRIDSP_2_QUAKE_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/BEI315.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-05-16T144915Z_01_SHA117_RTRIDSP_2_QUAKE-CHINA-TOLL_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/SHA117.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-05-16T144801Z_01_SHA113_RTRIDSP_2_QUAKE-CHINA-TOLL_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/SHA113.htm
Thumb for /thefacts/imagerepository/RTRPICT/2008-05-16T144627Z_01_SHA118_RTRIDSP_2_QUAKE-CHINA-TOLL_mainimage.jpg|/thenews/pictures/SHA118.htm

Yang Deijin looks after his motorcycles, a computer and an altar of the God of Wealth pulled out of his store in the city of Beichuan, located around 150 km north ...


More pictures | Galleries
Disclaimers |  Copyright |  Privacy |  Contact Us |  Feedback |  About Us |  RSS XML

Last updated:Fri May 16 15:30:07 2008