KENYA INSTITUTE OF STUDIES IN CRIMINAL JUSTICE

COURSE: DIPLOMA IN SECURITY MANAGEMENT

MODULE: AN INTRODUCTION TO DISASTER MANAGEMENT

STUDENT:

ADMISSION:

LECTURER:

TASK: discuss the different types of disaster including their causes and effects

DATE:
 TABLE OF CONTENT

Introduction……………………………………………………..……………..…………..….1

Types of Disasters……………………………………………………………….…………….2

Natural Disaster…………………………………………………………………..……..……..2

Manmade Disaster……………………………………………………………….…….……….3

Effects of Disaster…………………………………………………………………..…………..4

Preparedness for Disaster……………………………………………………………………….5

Prevention and Mitigation……………………………………………………………………….6

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………….7

References…………………………………………………………………………..……………8
Introduction

The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines Disaster as "any occurrence that causes damage,

ecological disruption, loss of human life, deterioration of health and health services, on a scale

sufficient to warrant an extraordinary response from outside the affected community or area. A

disaster is a consequence of a sudden disastrous event which seriously disrupts the normal

function of the society or the community to the extent that it cannot subsist without outside help.

A disaster is not just the occurrence of an event such as an earthquake, flood, conflict, health

epidemic or an industrial accident; a disaster occurs if that event/process negatively impacts

human populations. Disasters combine two elements: hazard, and the vulnerability of affected

people. A disaster occurs when a hazard exposes the vulnerability of individuals and

communities in such a way that their lives are directly threatened or sufficient harm has been

done to their community's economic and social structure to undermine their ability to survive. A

disaster can be defined as any tragic event stemming from events such as earthquakes, floods,

catastrophic accidents, fires, or explosions.

Types of Disasters

Disaster is a sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction. Disasters can

be classified into two basic categories based on their cause. Natural disasters and manmade

disasters are these two basic categories. Natural disasters are the disasters caused by natural

forces whereas manmade disasters are caused by activities of human beings. This is the main

difference between natural and manmade disaster. However, both these types of disasters can

have a major impact on the society.

Natural Disaster

A natural disaster is a disaster caused by nature, and men have no control over them.

Earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, landslides, hurricanes, wildfires, droughts, volcanic eruptions are

some examples of natural disasters. Such disasters cause massive loss of life, property, and many

other miseries. Let’s look at some of these examples in more details to have a better idea about

the damages caused by natural disasters.

Floods are one of the most common natural disasters that occur in many regions of the world

every year. Flood can be defined as a rising and overflowing of a body of water onto normally

dry land. Heavy rainfall in a short duration of time can result in a flood. Although the loss of

lives in a flood may be not as high as a tsunami or earthquake, floods result in many long term

problems. Damage to human properties (houses, roads, bridges, power lines, etc.), shortage of

food and drinking water, destruction of forests and animals, the spread of diseases, soil erosion

are some effects of floods.

Drought is the opposite of flood. It is a long period of time during which there is very little or no

rain. Sacristy of water, extensive crop damage, lack of food and drinking water, soil degradation

and erosion, death of animals and conditions like malnutrition are some effects of drought.

Although natural disasters are caused by nature, not by humans, the activities of humans can

have an influence on them. For instance, actions of men like cutting down trees and destroying

the sources of water in an area can lead to droughts and wildfire.

Manmade Disaster

A manmade disaster is a disaster caused by human beings. Some examples of manmade disasters

include hazardous material spills, explosions, chemical or biological attacks, nuclear blasts,

traffic collisions such as train accidents, plane crashes, etc. Most of these disasters are in the

form accidents (except attacks) and cause deaths, injuries, and loss of property. For example, the

gas leak at an Indian pesticide plant in 1984 , which is commonly known as the Bhopal gas

tragedy, was a manmade disaster. This was caused by the leak of toxic substances including

methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas. This disaster affected thousands of lives. The great Smog of is

another example of a manmade disaster. This smog resulted in a period of cold weather

combined with an anticyclone and windless conditions; the main cause for this disaster was

severe air-pollution. This caused about 4000 thousand deaths and other respiratory problems.

Just as natural disasters are influenced by human activities, manmade disasters too can be

influenced by nature. For example, the massive earthquake and tsunami (natural disaster) in

Japan in 2011 also caused nuclear accidents.

Effects of Disaster

It is a phenomenon that disasters can cause damage to life, property and destroy the economic,

social and cultural life of people. Disaster is the exposure of a group of people to a hazard,

leading to a serious disruption of the functioning of a society and causing human, material,

economic environmental losses which exceed the ability of the affected community or society to

cope. A disaster results from a combination of hazards and vulnerability that exceeds the capacity

of a society to reduce the potential negative consequences of risk. Hazard is an extreme event,

natural or man-made, with a destructive potential to social, economic and human assets.

Disasters are often described as a result of the combination of: the exposure to a hazard; the

conditions of vulnerability that are present; and insufficient capacity or measures to reduce or

cope with the potential negative consequences. Disaster impacts may include loss of life, injury,

disease and other negative effects on human physical, mental and social well-being, together

with damage to property, destruction of assets, loss of services, social and economic disruption

and environmental degradation. Natural disaster is any inevitable event that affects the

environment. It not only results in mass loss of human lives but also adversely affect the

economy of the region. Natural disasters do not have long history of occurrence which cannot be

predicted, nor can it be avoided. Many researchers state that that disaster is interrupted the state

in which social fabric is disrupted and becomes dysfunctional to a greater or lesser extent. Many

recent disaster e.g. tsunami in Indian ocean in 2004, earth quake in Pakistan in 2005, and Haiti

earthquake in 2010 are thoroughly discussed in print and electronic media, yet our understanding

of its economic impact and recovery plan is quiet premature. This topic highlights the effects of

natural disaster on a region.

For the impacts and its metigation it's very much important that we should know the magnitude

of the disaster. The area that is directly affected and indirectly affected. Directly means the place

where it actually happens and indirectly refers to the surrounding environment that is near with

the disaster place. As in disaster the people move to other safe places for their survival. It stresses

the other city in every account like to manage the space, food, and other life facilities to start

their normal life again.

Preparedness for Disaster

For all these the government work and try very hard to come up with situation. In some countries

already disaster management cell are functional and in some countries we can see the law and

order and they immediately respond to such dilemma. We also have such examples that there are

recovery plans for disasters but the issues are that these plans are outdated. The trained people

are less in number. It takes too much time to implement. It's not an easy task. Mostly we see that

short term plans are prepared and acted on it. The requirement for the successful disaster

management activity is the cooperation by the effected people as well as the rest of the society.

So far we see all over the world people generously participate for the disasters and try really hard

to help the effecties. They really come up with practical potentials that sort the worst matter.

Monitoring is also important after the measures because the effected people settlement may take

years. In the disaster area collective stress is being created. Like some places that are easily

approachable and some are far enough for the team to reach there for rescue. The government

should be clear where to place the emergency cell and how it will work and they must

communicate properly to the effectives and rest of the society the methodology. So that the
interested people to help the victims and they should know the reality too. All this information

can be transmitted by the satellites, good telecommunication system in the area.

Prevention and Mitigation

Despite the advances made by modem science, the exact time and place where an earthquake

may strike cannot be predicted. Hence, the occurrence of an earthquake cannot be prevented.

However, there are certain regions that are earthquakes prone and so the administration must

work before hand to minimize the damages due to occurrence of earthquakes in such areas. The

control and mitigation measures in earthquake prone regions include hazard reduction

programmes, development of critical facilities and proper land use planning.

Conclusion

As a result of mutual information exchange and reinforcing importance of man-made disasters,

more attention is paid to risk mitigation studies especially on man-made disasters in international

area as well as our country compared to the past, It is required that legal gaps form an-made

disasters are resolved and the studies regarding harmonization of the legislation of related

institutions and organizations with Union acquis are completed, Strengthening cooperation and

coordination among all actors and providing sharing of information will prevent duplications and

make studies more productive, It is necessary that awareness raising studies on man-made

disasters are increased, it is concentrated on training studies and studies are supported by drills,

For intervention studies, it is needed that intervention teams receive necessary training,

Reporting standard and database should be formed in consequence of man-made disaster.

 References

Ferron, M., & Massa, P. (2012, August). Psychological processes underlying Wikipedia

representations of natural and manmade disasters. In Proceedings of the Eighth Annual

International Symposium on Wikis and Open Collaboration (p. 2). ACM.

Liles, B. (2014). Meta-analytic review of psychological interventions for children survivors of

natural and man-made disasters. Current psychiatry reports, 16(9), 1-10.

Pantano, J. (2013). Catastrophic natural disasters and economic growth. Review of Economics

and Statistics, 95(5), 1549-1561.

Smith, K. (2013). Environmental hazards: assessing risk and reducing disaster. Routledge.

Sodhi, M. S. (2016). Natural disasters, the economy and population vulnerability as a vicious

cycle with exogenous hazards. Journal of Operations Management, 45, 101-113.

Valckx, K. (2014). Natural disasters and economic growth: A meta-analysis. Global

Environmental Change, 26, 183-195.