Three Creating Awareness, Promoting Resilience

Transcription

1 S E C T I O N Three Creating Awareness, Promoting Resilience

2 158 VOLUME 16: EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES IN COASTAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

3 16 Promoting Community Awareness and Resilience in Disaster Management Thailand IOI Operational Centre Involved: IOI-Thailand, located in the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, Bangkok, Thailand Project Coordinator: Cherdsak Virapat S U M M A R Y The project for promoting community awareness and resilience in disaster management was carried out in 24 schools/villages in six coastal provinces in the south of Thailand that were affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. The focus was on people s participation in planning and coordination with regard to disaster warning, preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery. The aim was to increase awareness and resilience at the community level. The project promoted a learning process for local disasterrisk management, targeting school children, their teachers, local administrative organizations, village leaders and government officers from different departments. Ultimately, the communities would participate in the decision-making process, leading to more effective disaster management. 159

4 160 VOLUME 16: EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES IN COASTAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT The school was selected as a sustainable government institution at the grass-roots level. Using simple visual maps and technical information revolving around the village, school children and their communities were able to participate in planning and organizing with two objectives in mind: to increase their capacity to learn from past disasters for better future protection and to improve measures for the reduction of disaster risk. The target group for training included students, school administrators, teachers, village leaders, local administrative organizations and provincial government officers from various departments. The training activities were undertaken by the National Disaster Warning Center team, including specialists in rural development, community disaster management and extension, and civil engineering, facilitated by a specialist in non-formal education. The National Disaster Warning Center, the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the Office of the Commission for Basic Education, the Ministry of Education and the Department of Fisheries collaborated during the development of the plans for learning and disaster preparedness and disaster response, including ways to mitigate impact. The Department of Mineral Resources helped to develop risk maps and evacuation maps. The project was implemented from January 2007 to December 2008, with a total budget of $240,000. B A C K G R O U N D A N D J U S T I F I C AT I O N On 26 December 2004, there was a huge earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale in the sea to the northwest of Sumatra Island. The resulting tsunami hit the Andaman coasts of Thailand at Phuket, Pang-Nga, Krabi, Trang, Satun and Ranong, causing nearly 5,400 casualties, half of them foreign tourists. About 8,400 people were injured, 2,950 went missing and 880 children were orphaned. The disaster affected the tourism industry along the Andaman coasts of Thailand and the resulting losses exceeded 30,000 million baht. Thai property and natural environments suffered extreme destruction. There were also tremendous calamities in Bangladesh, India, Indonesia, the Maldives, Mauritius, Myanmar, Seychelles and Sri Lanka and even in Kenya and Somalia. Over 250,000 people died in these countries. This was the severest natural disaster in the history of these Indian Ocean countries. In the wake of the disaster, Thailand made a commitment to put in place an effective tsunami early-warning arrangement as soon as possible. Thus the National Disaster Warning Center was established on 30 May The Center, which operates under the orders of the Prime Minister s office, functions as a national command centre for early warning of multi-hazard disasters. It uses human

5 Promoting Community Awareness and Resilience in Disaster Management Thailand 161 resources from various technical departments, especially from the Department of Mineral Resources. In August 2005, the Government of Thailand decided that the National Disaster Warning Center would act as a focal point in planning, coordinating, monitoring and supervising all related agencies in implementing disaster-warning, preparedness, mitigation and recovery services. Thus, the Center became the responsible authority in the whole process of the early-warning system so that best practices could be carried out for coordination at the national and local levels to protect the lives and property of all people living in Thailand. There was, however, a need to increase awareness and resilience at the community level. It was also necessary to promote people s participation in planning and coordination with regard to disaster warning, preparedness, response, mitigation and recovery. This was the motivation for the project described in this case study. In order to create a precedent and demonstrate a successful approach, the project initially focused on selected areas where there was a reasonable degree of community cooperation and the local groups (local administrative organizations and Provincial/District Officers, schools, etc.) had shown interest. These were identified at the start of the initiative and were also monitored for change during the project. C H A L L E N G E S A D D R E S S E D In September 2005, the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) assessed 16 National Warning Centres in the Indian Ocean and ranked the National Disaster Warning Center, Thailand, in Category IV. Even though this was the highest rank, proper communication from the Center to the communities was not yet in place. Therefore, there was a need to strengthen local knowledge and to increase local community awareness and resilience so as to ensure community preparedness and response in the event of future disasters. Apart from such challenges, there were other issues to be resolved: Data on community areas and water resources were not reliable and necessitated an in-depth survey at the household level. In certain areas such as Ban Klong Prasong School in Krabi and Pak Meng areas of Trang, there was a need for further exploration to determine better evacuation routes and safe places. The information on mean sea level obtained through the use of a Global Positioning System altimeter by the National Disaster Warning Center team was found to be erroneous. Therefore, it was necessary for the Royal Thai

6 162 VOLUME 16: EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES IN COASTAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Survey Department, Office of the Supreme Commander, Ministry of Defence, to conduct measurements. For effective project management, financial administration needed to be improved. It was suggested that the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission arrange an executing agency to handle the financial administration. This was important to reduce the number of steps in the procedures of both the Commission and the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, which in turn would enable the National Disaster Warning Center to implement project activities as scheduled. O B J E C T I V E S The objectives of the project were to: develop and demonstrate a learning mechanism for schools and communities for the management of disaster risk; strengthen community capacity and participation in the planning and decision-making process for reduction of disaster risk; and generate baseline information through a simple village survey and interviews with villagers and key informants. P R O J E C T P L A N N I N G The planning process involved key stakeholders from inter-agency departments of the central government, provincial government agencies, districts, subdistricts and the villages themselves. There were consultative meetings at selected schools/ villages, leading to the formation of committees on disaster-preparedness and disaster-response planning in 24 schools/ villages. The committees comprised school principals, village leaders, religious leaders, local non-governmental organizations (NGOs), teachers and school children. These committees then organized meetings to plan for disaster management in consultation with experts from the National Disaster Warning Center and inter-agency departments. The Royal Thai Survey Department conducted field surveys to obtain the mean sea level at 24 schools as reference points for more concrete planning. A training-of-trainers programme on household data collection was conducted for school principals, teachers and local officials. The actual data collection was carried out by school children from 24 schools. The data obtained were used for finalizing the disasterpreparedness and disaster-response plans at the stakeholder consultation meetings. This was followed by an assessment of the work plans presented by 24 committees.

7 Promoting Community Awareness and Resilience in Disaster Management Thailand 163 P R O J E C T A C T I V I T I E S Strategies that were developed to improve local community management included the following: strengthening of the co-management mechanism by mean of participatory rural appraisal and consultation, enhancing the bottom-up decisionmaking process; use of schools as community learning centres, improving knowledge transfer through learning mechanisms; application of management strategies for reduction of disaster risk; strengthening of monitoring and evaluation through capacitybuilding of government staff in disaster management by means of a programme to develop human resources; use of local knowledge for expansion of activities; promotion of greater capacity for learning from past disasters for better future protection and to improve measures to reduce disaster risk; and improved integration involving government departments. The following were the main activities carried out under the project: A kick-off meeting was held in February 2007 with government officers from relevant departments to clarify project objectives and project-cycle management. A coordination meeting was organized in March 2007 for officials of the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the Department of Fisheries, the Office of the Commission for Basic Education and local administrative organizations as well as school administrators of six provinces. National consultants and non-formal education specialists in disaster management were appointed in February-March 2007 for the preparation of the following: learning modules for school children, teachers and villagers; and participatory workshop methodology for teachers and local disaster managers. Appropriate communities were selected using the database on risk areas. Community consultation meetings and training were organized in March 2007 for teachers, local disaster managers, school administrators and community leaders in six provinces to collect basic information on schools and communities. A second round of community consultation meetings and training was arranged in June 2007 to complete baseline data on schools and communities. Meetings were facilitated in the period March-July 2007 for the

8 164 VOLUME 16: EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES IN COASTAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT Working Groups on Disaster Preparedness and Response in 24 schools/communities of six coastal provinces. Local plans were developed for learning, disaster-risk reduction, participation, and early-warning and evacuation exercises. Work plans for learning, disaster prevention and risk reduction, and tsunami early-warning and evacuation exercises were presented by 24 Working Groups in July 2007 at each school. A full-scale exercise was carried out by 24 Working Groups in July The Royal Thai Survey Department conducted a survey of mean sea levels during the period September-November A Tsunami Curriculum and Teacher Kits for Schools were developed during the period August-December Stakeholder consultation meetings were held in March 2008 at designated schools in each province. A C H I E V E M E N T S A N D O U T C O M E S The outcomes were as follows: 24 communities with their respective village leaders and local administrative organizations participated in the planning and management of their community for disaster-risk management. There was an increase in the community capacity for disaster protection and loss reduction. 240 teachers along with district and provincial government officers participated in practical activities relating to disaster-risk reduction, knowledge transfer and extension. 1,200 school children in six coastal provinces and 60 government officers from relevant departments participated in learning about disaster management. The school/community activities and evacuation exercises were assessed with respect to knowledge, capacity-building, disaster prevention, risk reduction, public participation and early warning. The results were positive. Baseline information for monitoring purposes was also generated through a simple village survey and interviews. The information included population profiles, historical accounts, geographic and topographic characteristics, availability and safety of water resources, food security and safety, public and community organizations, the impact of the tsunami and current needs. These data are of strong interest to the National Disaster Warning Center and the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, which typically have limited ability to access information on socio-economic conditions in communities.

9 Promoting Community Awareness and Resilience in Disaster Management Thailand 165 M O N I T O R I N G A N D E V A L U AT I O N The school and community activities were monitored after the first consultation meetings. The local meetings of school and community stakeholders that were held for completing the questionnaires and planning forms designed by the project experts were also monitored. At the second stakeholder consultation meetings, committees from four schools in each province were asked to present their completed questionnaires and planning forms to the committees from the three other schools of each province. Necessary clarifications were provided. The work plans were presented and assessed. They were tested in action, and full-scale evacuation exercises were conducted. Awards were presented to the schools/communities that passed the exercises. After the first round of community participation, suggestions were given for improvement in data collection. Use of data on mean sea levels was also explained. S T R E N G T H S A N D W E A K N E S S E S The strengths of the project included the following: the policy direction and support of the national government for the National Disaster Warning Center; effective collaboration among inter-agency departments; the multidisciplinary team of experts; and good collaboration with all government levels as well as schools and communities. The weaknesses included the following: the complexity of community livelihoods that had to be taken into account in preparing a framework for disaster-risk reduction; lack of experience among National Disaster Warning Center officers in community-based approaches and in dealing with communities and media; and lack of detailed data on households and the local environment. P A R T N E R S H I P S IOI-Thailand played an important role in providing strategic planning and projectcycle management for the National Disaster Warning Center and its interagency departments such as the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, the Department of Fisheries, the Office of the Commission for Basic Education and provincial government agencies. It assisted the National Disaster Warning Center in partnering with international entities such as the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission, the United

10 166 VOLUME 15: EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL PUBLIC-PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the United States Agency for International Development, the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center, the Asian Disaster Reduction Center and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (Eidgenössische Technische Hochschule Zürich). In dealing with schools and communities, IOI-Thailand introduced a new dimension by obtaining high-level decision-making support, using a multidisciplinary team of experts organizing National Disaster Warning Center tsunami working teams as well as school/community committees for local planning and management. I N N O V AT I O N S Among the project innovations were the following: coordination among government agencies, the private sector, NGOs, schools, communities and international organizations; integration of local knowledge with scientific information for effective disaster preparedness and disaster response; and establishment of consultative forums in order for government decision-makers and experts to meet with disaster managers from local government, community leaders, school administrators, school children, women s groups, NGOs and local volunteers. S U S T A I N A B I L I T Y IOI-Thailand has proposed a continuing project, the Regional Cross Sector Programme for Sustainable Management of Natural Hazards Risk in Southeast Asia. This will be a technical cooperation initiative between the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, IOI (representing the national Disaster Warning Center) and the Mekong Institute for the period The project will cover India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand on tsunamis and five countries Cambodia, China, Lao People s Democratic Republic, Myanmar and Viet Nam on flash floods and landslides. R E P L I C A B I L I T Y IOI-Thailand is planning to replicate the project in six Andaman coastal provinces to the north of Thailand, which are prone to flash floods and landslides. In this project, the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission will cooperate with the National Disaster Warning Center by using financial support from the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) Voluntary Trust Fund.

11 Promoting Community Awareness and Resilience in Disaster Management Thailand 167 D I F F I C U LT I E S A N D L E S S O N S The main constraint faced by the project was the financial administration of the UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission as well as that of the Government of Thailand: since the processes were slow, project schedules could not be met. Lesson learned were as follows: Results of the evacuation exercise indicated that bottom-up management for a community, using schools, was a good choice. Strengthening community response necessitates in-depth household surveys as well as an evacuation plan. Choosing safe places requires scientific data such as those from a survey of mean sea levels. The learning concept calls for local knowledge as well as scientific practices to be integrated into appropriate solutions. F U T U R E P L A N S In the early stage, the National Disaster Warning Center will emphasize earthquakes and tsunamis. Soon, however, it will cover all other natural disasters such as tropical storms, floods, dam breaks, wild fires, landslides and all kinds of detrimental pollution. It currently takes about 25 minutes before output notification for an earthquake is issued. In the near future, the Center will have certain types of devices that can detect earthquakes and tsunamis on a real-time basis. This will enable it to take decisions within 15 to 20 minutes and to issue warning messages within the world standards for time frame and accuracy. When there are adequate databases, the Center will have the capability to obtain the estimated time of arrival of a tsunami. The pilot project was carried out in 24 schools/villages impacted by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. However, the remaining villages in the tsunami risk areas listed by the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation number 509 in six Andaman coastal provinces. According to the project vision, all the communities should be able to increase their awareness and resilience. Thus, a mechanism to promote local competitiveness and initiative in building up community readiness will be used. Simple follow-up activities designed to reinforce the learning experience and aimed principally at school children will be undertaken by the school teachers. A final participatory evaluation of the learning experience and impact of the activities will also be carried out in order to evaluate the extent to which local management and community participation have improved.

12 168 VOLUME 16: EXAMPLES OF SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES IN COASTAL COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT P O L I C Y I M P L I C AT I O N S The Government of Thailand has made a commitment to expand the project to other schools in risk areas very soon. It will provide policy support for expanding the project to cover all 509 villages in the tsunami risk areas. This support will also be extended to areas prone to other types of frequently occurring disasters such as flash floods and landslides. M A I N P U B L I C A T I O N S Aliaga, B. et al. (2007). Full scale evacuation exercise of Thailand on July 25, 2007: Lessons learned for tsunami warning at community level centering preparedness and response at school as a community learning center. 9 pp. National Disaster Warning Center (2007). The Andaman wave, July 25, Full-scale exercise with evacuation in six Andaman coastal provinces of Thailand. 69 pp. Contact Cherdsak Virapat (Former Director, IOI-Thailand) Executive Director International Ocean Institute P. O. Box 3, Gzira GZR 1000, Malta Tel: cvirapat@hotmail.com Website: