Making communities disaster resilient Rohan Samarajiva Global Knowledge 3 11 December 2007, Kuala Lumpur Findings from work on preparing communities to respond to hazard information

Agenda  Why this approach? ICTs in disaster-risk reduction Supplementing government action on public warning  “Better prepared to receive warnings and act” Fit with Sarvodaya’s grama swarajya (village self- governance) philosophy  Parallels between the classic public-warning model and the community-based hazard information model Early warning center -- Hazard information hub Communication to first responders – communication to community leaders Last mile  Closed system useful for testing improvements to elements of public warning chain

Cyclone Sidr

Why declining deaths? YearCycloneStrengthDeaths 1970BholaCategory , “Gorky”Category 4~138, SidrCategory 4~3,447

Completing the chain: Warning & training at the last mile  Bangladesh reduced casualties (but not damage to property & livelihoods) through Communicating cyclone warnings to villages through HF radios and trained volunteers Easy-to-understand flag system at the last mile Cyclone shelters People who trust the warnings and evacuate Deaths from Sidr would have been less, if not for false tsunami warning and evacuation one month earlier (September 12 th, 2007)

Cyclones & tsunamis  Both affect the Bay of Bengal Tsunamigenic earthquakes in Sunda Trench every year since 2004  Difference is lead time 2-3 days for cyclones 90 mts to 6 hours for Bay of Bengal countries other than Indonesia  Simply replicating Bangladesh is not enough Bangladesh model used 1990s communication technology Much has happened since

Physical world where hazards occur Symbolic world where action originates Mediated interpersonal Physical and symbolic worlds, absent linking technologies

Physical world where hazards occur Symbolic world where action originates TV, Radio & Cell broadcasts Mediated interpersonal Warnings (telecom) Warnings (telecom & media) The physical, the symbolic & their linking through ICTs, simplified More time to run; more lives saved

Early warning chain (standard form) Citizens National early warning center First responders Media & Telecom Operators

Early warning chain (community based; applicable to Last-Mile HazInfo project) ERP1 National early warning center Villagers SCDMC ERP4 ERP3 ERP2 ICT Guard ians From domestic & international sources ERP1 National early warning center Villagers SCDMC ERP4 ERP3 ERP2 ICT Guard ians SCDMC will never issue warnings; only alerts so that communities can be better prepared to receive the warning from government Emergency Response Plan coordinator Media Govt 1 st Responders

CDMA Fixed Phone GSM Mobile Phone Remote Alarm Device Addressable Radios for Emergency Alerts Very Small Aperture Terminals ICTs for reaching community leaders

Which work best?  Eight modes (individual and combined) tested Reliability and effectiveness (composite measures) Complementary redundancy

Community  Forms of training that will work  Levels of organizational strength  Importance of emergency response plans Plan without simulation is no plan Simulation without plan cannot be done

Way forward  Disseminate lessons to improve public warning systems  More trials in specific contexts if needed  Improve community based response In Sri Lanka, 1,000 Sarvodaya villages  15,000 Sarvodaya villages  30,000 villages  Develop sustainable public-private models of sustaining community training and dissemination of hazard information  Improve multi-lingual, multi-modal Common Alerting Protocol (CAP)