Disaster Risk Reduction
DRR
Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is a systematic approach to identifying, assessing and
reducing the risks of disaster.
It aims to reduce socio-economic vulnerabilities to disaster as well as dealing with the
environmental and other hazards that trigger them.
Definition of Disaster risk reduction by UN agencies such as United Nations Office for
Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDDR) and the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP):
"The conceptual framework of elements considered with the possibilities to
minimize vulnerabilities and disaster risks throughout a society, to avoid
(prevention) or to limit (mitigation and preparedness) the adverse impacts of
hazards, within the broad context of sustainable development.
The conceptual framework of elements with possibilities to minimize:
– Hazards
– Vulnerabilities
– and
• Avoid (prevent) or
• Limit (mitigate and prepare for) disaster risks
Risk Management Risk Reduction Risk Reduction is:
– Prevention – Prevention ✔ Pre-disaster
– Mitigation – Mitigation
✔ Pre-emptive
– Preparedness – Preparedness
– Response ✔ Part of
– Recovery development
Disaster management cycle
[Link]
PHASES OF DISASTER
PREVENTION PREPAREDNESS
Pre-Disaster Education, Outreach and Training
Prevention/Mitigation Efforts Business Continuity &
Emergency Management
Planning
RESPONSE RECOVERY
Immediate Response to Post-Disaster Economic
Stakeholders Recovery Plan
Establish Business Recovery
Center
PREVENTION
❑ Prevention/Mitigation involves steps to reduce vulnerability to disaster impacts such as injuries
and loss of life and property.
❑ This might involve changes in local building codes to fortify buildings; revised zoning and
land use management; strengthening of public infrastructure; and other efforts to make the
community more resilient to a catastrophic event.
PREPAREDNESS
❑ Preparedness focuses on understanding how a disaster might impact the community
and how education, outreach and training can build capacity to respond to and recover
from a disaster.
❑ This may include engaging the business community, pre-disaster strategic planning,
and other logistical readiness activities.
❑ The disaster preparedness activities guide provides more information on how to better
prepare an organization and the business community for a disaster.
RESPONSE
❑ Response to addresses immediate threats presented by the disaster, including saving
lives, meeting humanitarian needs (food, shelter, clothing, public health and safety),
cleanup, damage assessment, and the start of resource distribution.
❑ As the response period progresses, focus shifts from dealing with immediate
emergency issues to conducting repairs, restoring utilities, establishing operations for
public services (including permitting), and finishing the cleanup process.
RECOVERY
❑ Recovery is the fourth phase of disaster and is the restoration of all aspects of the
disaster’s impact on a community and the return of the local economy to some sense
of normalcy. By this time, the impacted region has achieved a degree of physical,
environmental, economic and social stability.
❑ The recovery phase of disaster can be broken into two periods.
❑ The short-term phase typically lasts from six months to at least one year and
involves delivering immediate services to businesses.
❑ The long-term phase, which can range up to decades, requires thoughtful strategic
planning and action to address more serious or permanent impacts of a disaster.
Investment in economic development capacity building becomes essential to foster
economic diversification, attain new resources, build new partnerships and
implement effective recovery strategies and tactics.
❑ Communities must access and deploy a range of public and private resources to
enable long-term economic recovery.
Video Resources
Integrated Approach to Disaster Risk Management: Prevent, Residual risk Prepare,
Respond, Recover - [Link]
Building Capacity for Disaster Risk Management - [Link]
A Decade of Progress on Disaster Risk Management -
[Link]
STRUCTURAL AND
NONSTRUCTURAL
C
MITIGATION
MEASURES
❑ Mitigation, sometimes called prevention or risk reduction, is often considered the
“cornerstone of disaster management” (FEMA, 2005).
❑ While the three other components of the disaster management cycle ( preparedness,
response, and recovery) are performed either in reaction to hazards or in anticipation
of their consequences, mitigation measures seek to reduce the likelihood or
consequences of hazard risk before a disaster ever occurs.
Mitigation is defined as any sustained effort undertaken to reduce a hazard risk
through the reduction of the likelihood and/or the consequence component of
that hazard’s risk
❑ Mitigation measures tend to be costly, disruptive, time consuming, and in some cases
socially unpalatable
Mitigation goals
⮚ Risk Likelihood Reduction - possible to reduce the chance that many hazards will
manifest themselves
⮚ Risk Consequences Reduction - is a reduction in the impact of hazard on humans,
structures, the environment, or any combination of these
⮚ Risk Avoidance - removing all people and structures out of the affected area
⮚ Risk Acceptance - Certain hazards, disaster managers, as well as societies and
individuals, will consider a certain risk to be acceptable “as it is.” It may be determined
that any further reduction in risk is either too expensive or unnecessary
⮚ Risk Transfer, Sharing, or Spreading - risk transfer, sharing, or spreading. The
concept behind this goal is that risk cannot be actually reduced but its consequences or
likelihood can be diluted across a large group of people such that each suffers and
average impact.
Mitigation: Structural
⮚ Structural mitigation measures are those that involve or dictate a necessity for some
kind of construction, engineering, or other mechanical changes or improvements
aimed at reducing hazard risk likelihood or consequence.
⮚ Structural mitigation groups to be described are:
✔ Resistance construction
✔ Building codes and regulatory measures
✔ Relocation
✔ Structural modification
✔ Construction of community shelters
✔ Construction of barrier, deflection, or retention systems
✔ Detection systems
✔ Physical modification
✔ Treatment systems
✔ Redundancy in life safety infrastructure
Resistance Construction
❑ Clearly the best way to maximize a chance that a structure is able to resist the forces
inflicted by various hazards is to ensure that it is designed in such a way prior to
construction to do just that.
❑ Through awareness and education, individual, corporate, and government entities
can be informed of the hazards that exist and the measures that can be taken to
mitigate the risks of those hazards, allowing resistant construction to be considered.
❑ As a mitigation option, designing hazard resistance into the structure from the start is
the most cost-effective option and the option most likely to succeed
Building Codes and Resistance measures
❑ Hazard-resistant construction is by creating building codes to guide construction and
passing legislation that requires those codes be followed.
❑ Regulatory structures are one of the most widely adopted structural mitigation
measures, used in almost every country of the world in some form.
❑ With sufficient knowledge about the hazards likely to affect a region or a country,
engineers can develop building codes that guide builders to ensure that their designs
are able to resist the forces of the relevant hazards.
❑ When properly applied building codes offer a great deal of protection from a wide
range of hazards.
❑ They are primary reason for a drastic drop in the number of earthquake deaths in the
developing world during the last century
Relocation
❑ Occasionally, the most sensible way to protect a structure or a people from a hazard
is to relocate it or them away from the hazard. Homes and other structures may be
disassemble or transported intact
❑ Flooding is the most common reason that structures are relocated
❑ Though destroying the original structure and rebuilding it elsewhere is often less
expensive and technically more feasible, in certain circumstances such actions are
either impossible or undesirable
Structural Modification
❑ Scientific progress and ongoing research continually provide new information about
hazards.
❑ This new information can reveal that structures in indentified risk zones are not
designed to resist the forces of the likely hazard.
❑ There are three treatment options for these structures. First is to do nothing. Second
the structure may be demolished and rebuilt to accommodate the new hazard
information. Third, often the most appropriate action is to modify the structure such
that it resists the anticipated external forces. This action is often referred to as
retrofitting.
Cyclonic Storms: Wind resistant shingles; shutters; waterproofing; stronger frm
connections and joints; structural elevation.
Earthquakes: Sheer Walls; removal of cripple walls; foundation anchor bolts; frame
anchor connections; floor framing; chimney reinforcement; base isolation system etc.
Wildfire: Replacement of external materials including decks, gutters, downspouts,
paneling doors, window frames and roof shingles, with those that are fire resistant.
Hail: Increase roof slope; strengthen roof materials; strengthen load carrying capacity
of flat and shallow angle roofs.
Construction of Community Shelters
❑ The lives of community residents can be protected from a disaster’s consequences
through the construction of shelters designed to withstand a certain type or range of
hazard consequences.
❑ Shelters are usually constructed when it is either unlikely or unrealistic for all or a
majority of community members to be able to protect themselves from the hazard in
their homes or elsewhere.
❑ Two systems must be in place in order for shelter to work. First, there must be an
effective early warning system that would enable residents to have enough time to travel
to the shelter before the hazard event.
❑ Second, there must be a public education campaign that both raises awareness of the
existence of the shelter and teaches residents how to recognize when travel to the
Construction of Barrier, Deflection, or Retention Systems
❑ The forces that many hazards exert upon man and the built environment can be
controlled through specially engineered structures. These structures fall under three
main categories: barriers, deflection system, and retention systems.
Barriers are designed to stop a physical force dead and its tracks
✔ Seawalls (cyclonic storm surges, tsunamis, high waves rough seas, and coastal
erosion)
✔ Floodwalls (Floods, flash floods)
✔ Natural or synthetic wind and particle movement barriers (strong seasonal winds,
sand drift, dune movement, beach erosion, snow drift)
✔ Defensible spaces (wildfires, forest fires)
✔ Mass movement protection walls (landslides, mudslides, rockslides, avalanches).
Deflection systems are designed to divert the physical forces of a hazard, allowing it to
change course so that a structure situated in its original path escapes harm.
✔ Avalanche bridge (snow avalanches)
✔ Chutes (landslides, mudflows, lahars, rockslides)
✔ Lava flow channels (volcanic lava)
✔ Diversion trenches, Channels, canals, and spillway (floods)
Retention systems are designed to contain a hazard, thereby preventing its destructive
forces from ever being released.
✔ Dams (drought, floods)
✔ Levees and Flood walls (Floods)
✔ Slit dams (sedimentation, floods)
✔ Landslide walls (masonry, concrete, rock cage, crib walls, bin walls, and buttress walls)
✔ Slope stabilization covers (concrete, netting, wire mesh, vegetation (landslides, mudflows, and
rockfalls).
Detection systems
Detection systems are designed to recognize a hazard that might not otherwise be
perceptible to humans.
As more funding is dedicated to research and development of detection systems, their
ability to prevent disasters or warn of hazard consequences before disaster strikes
increase.
Natural disasters, detection systems are primarily used to save lives, with technological
and international hazards, however, it may be possible to prevent an attack, explosion,
fire, accident, or other damaging event.
⮚ Imaging satellites (Wildfires, hurricanes, volcanoes, landslides, avalanches,
floods, fire risk, terrorism, virtually all hazards)
⮚ Chemical/biological/radiological/explosive detection systems (technological
hazards (chemical leaks, pipeline failures), terrorism)
⮚ Ground movement monitoring system (seismicity, volcanic activity, dam failure,
expansive soils, land subsidence, rail infrastructure failure)
⮚ Flood gauges (hydrologic hazards)
⮚ Weather stations (severe weather, tornadoes)
⮚ Undersea and buoy oceanic movement detection (tsunamis)
⮚ Information systems (epidemics, WMD terrorism)
Physical modification
It is the group of mitigation measures that alters the physical landscape in such a
manner that hazard likelihood or consequence is reduced.
❖ Slope terracing-landslides, mudflows, erosion.
❖ Slope drainage-landslides, mudflows, erosion.
❖ Regarding of steep slopes-landslides, mudflows, rockfalls, erosion,
avalanches
❖ Anchors and piling-landslides
❖ Removal and/or replacement of soil
❖ Wetland reclamation-flooding
❖ Dredging rivers-flooding
❖ Dredging reservoirs-drought
Treatment systems
Seek to remove a hazard from a natural system that humans depend on. These
systems may be designed for non-stop use or for use in certain circumstances where a
hazard is known to be present
✔ Water treatment systems
✔ HEPA air filtration ventilation systems Airborne pathogen decontamination
systems
✔ Hazardous materials (HAZMAT) decontamination systems
Redundancy in life safety infrastructure
As humans hand evolved beyond substance living, they have become more dependent
upon each other and societal infrastructure.
❑ Electricity infrastructure
❑ Public Health Infrastructure
❑ Emergency management infrastructure
❑ Water storage, treatment, conveyance, and delivery systems
❑ Transportation infrastructure
❑ Irrigation systems
❑ Food delivery
Non-structural Mitigation
▪ Non-structural Mitigation, as defined previously, generally involves a reduction in the
likelihood or consequence of risk through modifications in human behavior or natural
processes, without requiring the use of engineered structures.
▪ Non-structural mitigation techniques are often considered mechanisms where man
adapts to nature.” They tend to be less costly and fairly easy for communities with
few financial or technological resources to implement.
✔ Regulatory measures
✔ Community awareness and education programs
✔ Nonstructural physical modification
✔ Environmental control
✔ Behavioral modification
Regulatory Measure
Regulatory measures limit hazard risk by legally dictating human actions.
- Land use management (Zoning)
- Open space preservation (green spaces)
- Protective resource preservation
- Denial of services to high-risk areas
- Density control
- Building use regulations
- Mitigation easements
- HAZMAT manufacture, use, transport, and disposal
- Safety standards and regulations
- Natural resources use regulations
Community Awareness and Education Programs
❑ The public is most able to protect themselves from the effects of a hazard if they are
first informed that the hazard exists, and then educated about what they can do to
limit their risk.
❑ Public education programs are considered both mitigation and preparedness
measures.
- Awareness of the hazard risk behavior
- Pre-disaster risk reduction behavior
- Pre-disaster preparedness behavior
- Post-disaster response behavior
- Post-disaster recovery behavior
❑ Warning systems inform the public that hazard risk which has reached a threshold
required certain protective actions
- Prior knowledge of the risks faced by communities
- A technical monitoring and warning services for these risks
- The dissemination of understandable warnings to those at risk
- Knowledge by people of how to react and the capacity to do so
❑ Risk mapping involves presenting the likelihood and consequence components in
the format of a physical map, with figures based upon a specific hazard of set of
hazards
Case Study : Structural and non-structural measures in flood risk management -
[Link]
ment_measures_and_links_to_eu_wfd/presentations/[Link]
Physical Modifications
❑ Security of furniture, pictures, and appliances, and installing latches on
cupboards - In many earthquakes, the majority of injuries are caused by falling
furniture and other unsecured belongings. Economic coasts also can be reduced
significantly through this very inexpensive, simple measure that generally requires
little more than connecting items to walls through the use of a specially designed thin
metal strep.
❑ Removal or securing of projectiles - During tornadoes, items commodity found
outside the house, such as cooking grills, furniture, and stored wood, may become
airborne projectiles than cause harm, fatalities, or further property damage.
Environmental Control
- Explosive detonation to relieve seismic pressure (earthquakes)
- Launched or placed explosive to release stored snow cover (avalanches)
- Cloud seeding (hail, hurricanes, drought, and snow)
- Controlled burns (wildfires)
- Bombing of Volcano flows
- Dune and beach restoration or preservation (storm surges, erosion)
- Forest and vegetation management (landslide mudflow, flooding, erosion)
- Riverine and reservoir sediment and erosion control (flooding)
- Replacement of soils (expansive soils)
- Hillside drainage (landslides, mudslide erosion)
- Slope grading (landslides, mudslides, rockfalls erosion)
- Disease vector eradication (Epidemics)
Behavior Modification
Through collective action, a community can alter the behavior of individuals;
resulting in some common risk reduction benefit.
✔ Rationing: Rationing is often performed prior to and during periods of drought. Because it
can be very difficult for governments to limit vital services such as water to citizens, it is
up to citizenships to limit their individual usage.
✔ Environmental conservation: Though proper education and the offering of alternatives,
destructive practices can be halted before too much damage is done.
✔ Tax incentives, subsidies, and other financial rewards for safe practices: Individuals and
businesses can be coaxed into safer practices that reduce overall risk through financial
incentive.
✔ Strengthening of social ties: When a community strengthens its social ties, it is more
likely to withstand a hazard’s stresses
DISASTER RISK
C
ANALYSIS AND
ASSESSMENT
Risk is the probability of a harmful occurrence with a specific force at a specific location
and at a specific time. Risk relates to humans or objects at risk from natural events.
Risk analysis is a basic instrument of disaster risk management which is used to
study the factors of disaster risk and provides the basis for planning and implementing
measures to reduce risks and impacts of disasters.
Assessment of impacts as the goal of risk analysis
Hazard analysis
❑ A hazard analysis investigates, identifies and documents natural hazards (drought,
floods, landslides, earthquakes, etc.), their causes and impact chains
❑ In hazard analysis, natural disasters (droughts, floods, landslides, earthquakes etc)
and their causes and the resulting impact chains are identified, analysed and
documented.
❑ The first stage in hazard analysis is to identify the types of hazards. There are many
ways to classify hazard types, e.g. natural events occurring suddenly or gradually, of
an atmospheric, seismic, geological, volcanic, biological and hydrological nature
while others summarise mass movements under the heading of “geomorphological
hazards”.
❑ Depending on the types of hazard identified, the process may need to be continued on
a separate basis for each type of hazard or group of hazard types. Earthquakes, for
example, require different instruments and specialisations for analysis than e.g.
landslides or floods. The analytical methodology must be adapted for the hazard types
and data available.
❑ Identification and characterisation of hazard prone locations.
❑ Identification and determination of the probabilities of occurrence on an ordinal scale
(high – medium – low).
❑ Estimate or calculate the scale (strength, magnitude) of the hazardous event, also on
an ordinal scale.
❑ Identify the factors influencing the hazards, e.g. climatic change, environmental
destruction and resource degradation, major infrastructural facilities such as dams etc.
Vulnerability analysis
❑ The ability of a system (or element) to withstand, avoid, neutralise or absorb the
impacts of hazardous natural events.
❑ Before starting an analysis of the vulnerability of a population group and its bases for
living, the extreme natural events and the locations they threaten must be identified
and studied. Without extreme natural events as a hazard, there are no vulnerable
elements, and hence no hazard. Conversely, without threatened locations with
vulnerable elements, there is no risk, and hence no need for either hazard or
vulnerability analysis.
❑ The vulnerability of a group of people or region is inseparably linked to the social,
cultural and economic processes developing there and the agricultural and ecological
Transformation of the region. Vulnerabilities are created, they are the product of
social development or faulty development; they reflect deficits, shortages or
disruptions within social development.
❑ Vulnerability is assessed by the potential loss resulting from a natural event. It
expresses the degree of possible loss or damage to an element threatened by a
natural event of specific force. Damage can be to the population (life, health,
wellbeing), material assets (buildings, infrastructure) or natural assets (woods, forest,
agricultural land).
❑ Identification of potentially vulnerable individuals or elements (e.g. agricultural
production, buildings, health, agricultural land and waters). In this, basic data is
collected on population (age, density, gender, ethnic structure, socioeconomic
status), location (buildings, important facilities such as schools, hospitals,
emergency centres, environment, economy, structures, history), self-protection
capability in terms of capacities for disaster preparedness – emergency response
capability, training, prevention programme, early warning systems
❑ Identification and analysis of factors influencing or resulting in vulnerability =
vulnerability factors for each hazard type. Analysis of risk perception and the factors
determining this (e.g. education, access to information, poverty) and investigation of
the vulnerability factors and their linkage and interdependencies.
❑ Development and identification of indicators for identifying vulnerabilities and
estimating the degree of vulnerability (quality and location of buildings and basic
infrastructure, education, access to information, diversity of agriculture and seed,
preventive infrastructure etc).
❑ Analysis of self-protection capabilities: identification of indicators to show or measure
capacity for preparedness (protective and preventive infrastructure, early warning
and forecasting systems, etc). Here, strategies and measures are identified and
investigated at the various levels (family, village, community, district, province,
country).The following indicators provide information on the existence or degree of
strength of coping strategies:
o monitoring and early warning systems
o traditional forecasting and early warning systems
o plans for disaster reduction
o plans and fund for disaster protection
o insurance policies
o construction standards
o maintenance of basic infrastructure
o preventive structures, protective infrastructure
o land use planning, spatial planning, zoning
o organisation and communication (emergency committees)
o stability of settlement, social structures
o local knowledge (of hazards)
❑ Estimate of accepted risk (risk level) and hence residual risk. Preventive measures
are taken to reduce the risk to a socially and culturally accepted risk.
“Inputs” and “outputs” in risk analysis
Remote sensing and Geographical Information Systems (GIS) have in recent years led
to the development and improvement of numerous instruments and methods for
Hazard mapping and analyzing the physical aspects of vulnerability
Hazard maps: these are maps which give qualitative and quantitative information on
natural hazards, e.g. by presenting the expected danger or maximum level of danger or the
event, e.g. slopes at risk from landslides.
Risk zone maps: these provide information on the probability of occurrence (in the case of
earthquakes, the contain the building standards needed for disaster eduction).They are
generally the result or product of a hazard analysis.
Risk maps are risk zone maps which also contain quantitative information on the risk and
the impacts on people, property, environment, etc. Typically, they take into account the
physical aspects of vulnerability, but not the social, economic and political aspects.
Disaster Risk assessment
Is a process to determine the nature and extent of such risk, by analyzing hazards and
evaluating existing conditions of vulnerability that together could potentially harm
exposed people, property, services, livelihoods and the environment on which they
depend. In this way, informed decisions can be made regarding steps to reduce the
impacts of disasters.
A comprehensive risk assessment not only evaluates the magnitude and likelihood of
potential losses in case of a disaster but also provides full understanding of the causes
and impact of those losses.
DRA is an integral part of the decision making process. It therefore needs to engage
multi-stakeholders from various disciplines and requires close cooperation and
collaboration of different organizations and institutions of the target area.
Steps in Risk Assessment
1. Hazard Assessment:
In this section the researcher identifies the types of hazards that have occurred in the
area in the past or can occur in the future. This is usually the first step which then
defines other steps because for each hazard, different tools and techniques are used
for analysis and assessment. Earthquakes, for example, require different instruments
and specializations for analysis than e.g. landslides or floods. The next steps are to
find the frequency, seasonality, magnitude, intensity, extent and causes of the
occurrence of hazards.
Steps in Hazard Assessment
Read Also: Steps in Hazard Assessment - [Link]
assessment-process
2. Vulnerability Assessment:
This step is performed to determine the elements at risk, degree of vulnerability and
the causes of the elements at risk. All elements (people, building, resources etc) which
are prone to the hazard are identified and an inventory is prepared. Then the degree of
their vulnerability is analysed and causes of their vulnerability are determined.
Critical facility analysis is also performed by determining the critical facilities (that play
major role in daily routine life e.g. schools, hospitals, mosques, civic centers etc.) at
risk, causes of their vulnerabilities and analyzing historical records of hazard
occurence in the identified facilities.
3. Capacity Assessment:
Capacity assessment means to identify the strengths and resources available to
reduce the level of risk, or the effects of a disaster. In this step, resources of a
community are evaluated by analyzing the available strengths like skills, expertise,
equipment, infrastructure etc. Then the availabilty of these reources is evaluated to
know how soon these resources can be deployed and become available to use.
Another important step is to find out how durable and long lasting these resources are
and what is the level of their operational integrity (Ability to complete tasks without
supervision).
4. People's perception of Risk:
The process of finding out the perceptions of heterogeneous groups in the community
regarding the disasters, hazards and risks that they are facing.
Components of a flood early warning system
Read
How to Communicate During a Disaster -
[Link]
Natural Disaster Emergency Communication Preparedness -
[Link]
[Link]
POST DISASTER
C
ENVIRONMENTAL
RESPONSE
❖ Sphere (formerly known as the
Sphere Project) is a global
movement started in 1997 aiming to
improve the quality of humanitarian
assistance.
❖ The Sphere standards are the most
commonly used and most widely
known set of humanitarian
standards.
❖ Sphere's flagship publication is the
Sphere Handbook.
❑ The 1990s saw a rapid increase in the international activities of humanitarian
agencies. This was particularly the case during Great Lakes refugee crisis in 1994.
❑ A growing number of donor and NGO evaluations were critical of the responses
and actions of many NGOs.
❑ There was growing discussion among humanitarian agencies about the lack of
standards for providing humanitarian assistance. Some of the preliminary
conclusions of the multi-donor Joint Evaluation of Emergency Assistance to
Rwanda were critical of the performance of humanitarian agencies in the Great
Lakes crisis.
❑ A number of agencies felt that it was time to get their own houses in order and
explored the idea of formulating standards for humanitarian response
❑ Simultaneously, in 1996, discussions were taking place within Inter-Action and the
Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response (SCHR) about a project for setting
standards.
❑ The members of both organizations decided that it would be a good idea to pool their
resources and set up a joint project. Thus, in 1997, the Sphere Project was set up
with a management committee made up of representatives from each of the SCHR
members and representatives from Inter-Action.
❑ More than 25 percent of the funds for the first phase of the project came from the
member agencies of the management committee and the rest from a few
government donors. From the beginning, three observers were invited to fully
participate in the work of the management committee.
Sponsors:
▪ SCHR (Care International, Caritas Internationalis, the International
Committee of the Red Cross, the International Federation of Red
Cross and Red Crescent Societies, International Save the Children
Alliance, Lutheran World Federation, Oxfam, World Council of
Churches, and Médecins Sans Frontières)
▪ InterAction (165 US-based members; 62 in its Disaster Response
Committee)
Observers: Voice, ICRC & ICVA
[Link]
Sphere Core Beliefs
Two Core Beliefs of Sphere
1. 2.
All possible steps should Those affected by
be taken to alleviate have a right to lif
human suffering arising dignity and there
out of calamity and right to assista
conflict,
What is Sphere
Sphere is three things
1. Handbook
2.
Process
3.
Commitment
Consultation Process
1997 Initial 2000 handbook 2004 handbook
consultation launched revised edition
4000+
people
80 countries
400 around the world
organisations
The Sphere Standard for Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene
Promotion
✔ Hygiene Promotion
⮚ Std1 – Programme design and implementation
✔ Water Supply
⮚ Std1- Access and water Quantity
⮚ Std2 - Water Quality
⮚ Std3 - Water use facilities and goods
✔ Excreta Disposal
⮚ Std1 – Access to, number of, toilets
⮚ Std – Design, construction and use of toilets
✔ Vector Control
⮚ Std1 – Individual and family protection
⮚ Std2 – Physical, environmental and chemical protection
measures
⮚ Std3 – Chemical control safety
✔ Solid Waste Management
⮚ Std1 – Solid waste collection and disposal
✔ Drainage
⮚ Std1 – Drainage works
Hygiene Promotion
Need Assessment
• Excreta disposal
• Use & maintenance of toilet
• Proper hand washing
• Water collection, storage & Handling
• Food preparation, storage and handling
• Minimum 2 promoters for 1000 population
Water Supply : Access and ⮚ 15 lpcd drinking, cooking and personal hygiene
water quantity ⮚ Distance between the house to water point :
500 mts
⮚ Queuing time not more than 15 minutes
(Distribution of water point)
⮚ 3 minutes to fill a 20 lit container (water
pressure)
⮚ Consistency (regular supply & required quantity
maintenance aspects
⮚ No faecal coliforms at the point of delivery
⮚ Water disinfection (Turbidity must be below 5
NTU)
Water Supply : Water quality
⮚ Ensure at least 2 clean container for water collection & storage
⮚ Soap for hand washing (250 g per month)
⮚ Separate cubicles for males & females for bathing
⮚ One washing basin per 100 people & separate place for women (to dry
undergarments / napkins)
⮚ Involve vulnerable groups.
Excreta
Disposal
⮚ One toilet per 20 people
⮚ Separate toilet for men and women (define defecation area : trench latrine
etc..)
⮚ Proper cleaning and maintenance
⮚ No more than 50 metres
⮚ Children faeces disposed safely & hygienically
⮚ A refuse container no more than 100 metres from a communal refuse pit.
Animation Film - WES Intervention in Emergency Relief
© WASH Institute
Animation Film - WES Intervention in Emergency Relief - [Link]
Food Safety
Read
Food Safety in a Disaster or Emergency -
[Link]
People’s Security
✔ If you have not been ordered to evacuate, stay in a safe area or shelter during a
natural disaster. In your home, a safe area may be a ground floor interior room, closet or
bathroom. Be sure you have access to your survival kit in case you are in an emergency
event that lasts several days.
✔ Listen to your portable radio for important updates and instructions from local
authorities. Remember to have a battery-powered radio in your survival kit. Some radios
are now equipped with multiple power sources, such as batteries, solar panels and a hand
crank.
✔ If power is lost, use a generator with caution. Make sure conditions are safe before
operating a portable generator. Only operate it outside — away from windows, doors or
vents. Follow all manufacturer’s instructions.
✔ Stay in your safe area and do not drive until the danger has passed. Resist the
❑ Communicate where you will be. Contact someone outside the affected area to
tell them where you will be for the duration of the event. Business owners should
remind employees of their roles in helping to get the business back up and running,
and how they will be notified when the facility is open again.
❑ Know the warning signs and alert signals for your area. Stay tuned to your local
television or radio station or community alert system for emergency information.
❑ Check your emergency survival kit. Make sure your emergency survival kit is
stocked with essential items and kept in an easily accessible location.
❑ Collect emergency building materials. Depending on the type of disaster, you
may want to have emergency materials on hand, such as plywood, sandbags and
waterproof tarps.
❑ Fuel up your vehicles and equipment. If you have an emergency generator,
make sure you have fresh fuel on hand. Depending on your situation, you may
need a supply of extra fuel. If so, be sure to store the spare fuel in an approved
container in a safe location. Never use a generator inside or even in a garage.
Make sure it is located a safe distance from windows, doors and vents.
❑ Be sure you have car chargers for your cell phone, smart phone and other
portable devices. Having car chargers available can assist you in staying in
communication with others if your electricity goes out. Do not forget to fully charge
devices before a storm.
❑ Secure all outdoor objects or move them inside. Grills, patio furniture and
flowerpots are common household items that can become airborne in high winds.
Do not use grills inside or store propane tanks inside the house or garage.
Business owners should also remember to secure outdoor signage, benches and
equipment to help minimize potential damage.
❑ Know how to shut off all utilities. It is always a good idea to know how to turn off
the gas, electricity and water in your home or place of business. If you need to
evacuate suddenly, it may be prudent to turn off utilities before leaving. Before
doing so, consider equipment that can help minimize damage and should therefore
not have utilities interrupted, such as electricity to sump pumps or fire protection
equipment.
The following are some of the key considerations for a survival kit to fit these potential
emergency situations. Consider how each of them could suit these scenarios and arm
yourself appropriately.
o One gallon of water, per person, per day.
o Non-perishable and canned foods, along with a non-electric can opener.
o Sanitation and personal hygiene items.
o Flashlights with extra batteries.
o Battery-powered or hand-crank radio, with extra batteries if relevant.
o Extra clothing and blankets.
o A first-aid kit.
o Emergency cash and checks as credit cards may not be dependable in a power
outage.
o Chargers for electronics, including vehicle chargers.
o A whistle to signal for help.
o Duct tape.
o Copies of personal documents, including a home inventory list, insurance policies and
other important legal and financial documents.
o Bug spray (depending on location and climate).
o Hand and foot warmers (depending climate).
o Pen and notebook to keep notes such as important phone numbers, in case the power
is out and electronic devices are not working.
o Baby supplies such as diapers, wipes, infant formula, food and bottles.
o Pet food and extra water for your pets.
o At least a three- to seven-day supply of any daily medication for family members and
pets.
