DR STEPHEN RAMROOP
ARE WE ready for a major disaster in TT? As we approach another general election we must look closely at our readiness as a country for a massive disaster impact such as an earthquake or the more frequent episodes of flooding that we experience annually all year round. We as a nation must decide who we must put in power to strengthen our current disaster risk-reduction systems and improve national resilience in every sector and community.
Unfortunately, the pathway is not simple. Due to the way our population votes, we are always dependent on the so-called marginal or fringe voters who select a political party based on merit and their expectations and experience, and because roughly half of the other constituencies are safely divided equally between the two major parties.
Disasters will affect our country. This is a fact. Investments in disaster readiness are not realised until several years later and this is not politically suitable. Thus, we recognise that there is global tendency for politicians to focus on humanitarian services when a disaster strikes rather than allocate significant funding towards structural and non-structural mitigation programmes.
Handing out hampers in a flood-stricken area has become a regular occurrence among politicians even at their own risk. Having regular drills and resilience-building programmes, along with short-, medium- and long-term structural measures that are evidence-based and that have been shown to be statistically significant in reducing risk in disaster-affected communities based on empirical scientific data and studies carried out in several disaster affected states globally is mandatory.
Post-covid disaster risk-reduction strategies would have been significantly reduced because of funding issues. The Donald Trump administration in the US has seemingly identified the problems that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been experiencing and wants to remove this entity. The PNM government over the past ten years has diverted much of the national responsibility to the Local Government Ministry and reduced the oversight of the Office of Disaster Preparedness and Management (ODPM).
Although this is a good policy that strengthens local resilience and is highly acceptable, the need for central 24/7 situational awareness is mandatory and must not be taken lightly. Most of the disaster management units (DMU) of local government cannot scale up a national emergency relief effort as they are all in silos and thus not part of the national intelligence structure 24/7.
Just getting in contact with a hotline number means that someone affected by a disaster on a fringe border of two municipalities have two numbers to call in addition to fire and police. In fact, there are over 29 numbers that are posted in a national disaster situation in this country including Tobago. This is not an appropriate system for emergency communication based on all the scientific empirical data we have now in disaster risk planning. We must have only one emergen
