Disaster Management

Practices
Presented By: - Samir Sitaula
ICMS 7th Batch
Disaster Management
Disaster Causes widespread distress, destruction that leads to the loss of life and
property.

Disaster Management is not about stopping such event when it occurs. Instead it
is about reducing the impact of these events on a community or a country.

When we don’t create a plan to deal with disasters, we could end up having to
deal with lost revenue and massive human casualties.
Main Goals of disaster management
→ Effective recovery

→ Planning proactively to mitigate the risks.

→ Reducing loss
Life Cycle of Disaster Management
Disaster Management Practices
→ Approaches and Methodologies For managing disasters.

Types

1. Indigenous Disaster Risk Management

2. Community Based Disaster Risk Management
3. Integrated Disaster Risk Management
4. Modern Disaster Management→ Four Phases Approaches
5. Public Private Partnership Oriented Disaster Management
6. Heuristic Approach to Disaster Management
 1. Indigenous Disaster Risk Management
The success and the sustainability of interventions at the community level depend, among a number of factors, on the availability of
relevant local culture, knowledge and indigenous practices that can combine with new ideas to generate innovation.

Even before we came up with high technology based early warning systems, or standard operating procedures for response,
numerous local communities worldwide have prepared, operated, acted, and responded to natural disasters using indigenous
methods passed on from one generation to the next.

The use of local information and knowledge to manage the disaster risk by local as well as indigenous people can be said as
indigenous Disaster Risk Management.
→ Information Exchange
→ Relevant traditional and indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage
→ Remote and Isolated communities uses various indigenous mitigation and preparedness practices.
→ Inherited Knowledge and beliefs.
Indigenous Approaches in Nepal
Nepal is prone to several natural disasters, including landslides, floods, earthquakes, fire and droughts, due to topography, unplanned
development and rapid population growth, among other causes. There are many rural and isolated places in Nepal. They have their
own indigenous way of managing and dealing the disastrous situations.

What they do ?

For Landslide: -

→ Agro-Forestry
Indigenous Approaches in Nepal
→ Improving terrace riser
Indigenous Approaches in Nepal
→ Fencing
Indigenous Approaches in Nepal
→ Mixed and Inter Cropping
Indigenous Approaches Contd...

For Flood
→ Preserving foods during Monsoon seasons

→ Proper fencing on Mud walls with bamboo

→ Making base (Foundation) of houses higher

→ Depending on the nearest village for flow of information(oral and written communication)

→ Using knowledge of own field of work. E.g. Fisherman

Indigenous People Around Globe
Total Population : - 350-500 million

→ Ainu people of Japan

→ Maasai in East Africa

→ The Chakma of Pakistan

→ Inuit and Aleutians of Canada and circumpolar Europe

→ American Indians of the U.S.

→ Raute Of Nepal
Advantages of Indigenous Approach
• Low cost strategies using local resources and know-how

• Well-accepted, trusted and understood (internalized)

• Community ownership

• Culturally sensitive

• Continuous monitoring

• Time tested reliability

• In tune with local contexts and needs

• Empower the community, including the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups, to take action instead of
relying on external help only

• Holistic (takes into account other stresses or priorities which affect the vulnerability of social groups, households
or individuals
Disadvantages of Indigenous Approach
1. the belief that Technology is ‘superior’ to local knowledge is still dominant.

2. local knowledge is difficult to identify, use, assess, validate, generalize and replicate

3. local knowledge is often monopolized by dominant groups in the community

4. some local practices, beliefs, and adaptation strategies are unsustainable and/or not socially equitable

5. due to rapid changes, local knowledge and practices are becoming inappropriate, irrelevant or
inaccessible over time

6. local knowledge lacks accountability within the communities themselves especially with the younger
generations
Contd...
7. the focus on local knowledge can be perceived as a threat to national interests and political structures
especially in authoritarian regimes

8. natural hazards and disasters have been conceived primarily as an issue pertaining to national
defense and security, which makes decentralization efforts in this sector difficult

9. the documentation and use of local knowledge can be used by outsiders against local people
themselves to maintain control over communities and their resources
The End