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Risk Management In Gambia

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Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, droughts, volcanic eruptions, and landslides constitute a major problem in many developing and developed countries. Many nations experienced fatalities and injuries, property damage, and economic and social disruption resulting from natural disasters. Flood disaster has a very special place in natural hazards. In The Gambia (West-Africa), floods have been a major natural hazard, affecting the country over the last decade. Floods and windstorms have affected nearly 34,000 people during the rainy season between September and October 2012 and almost 20% (7,745 people) of the affected population were displaced while 13 people were reported to have died either through drowning or by collapsed …show more content…

Thywissen(4) documented no less than thirty-six definitions. Birkmann(5) noted that ‘we are still dealing with a paradox: we aim to measure vulnerability, yet we cannot define it precisely. However, there are generally two perspectives in which vulnerability can be viewed and which are closely linked with the evolution of the concept(6): (1) the amount of damage caused to a system by a particular hazard (technical or engineering sciences oriented perspective), and (2) a state that exists within a system before it encounters a hazard (social sciences oriented perspective ). The former perspective emphasizes assessments of hazards and their impacts, in which the role of human systems in mediating the outcomes of hazard events is downplayed or neglected. The latter perspective puts the human system on the central stage and focuses on determining the coping capacity of the society, the ability to resist, respond and recover from the impact of a natural hazard(7). In order words, the technical sciences perspective of vulnerability focuses primarily on physical aspects(7) and the social sciences perspective takes into account various factors and parameters that influence vulnerability such as physical, economic, social, environmental, and institutional characteristics.(8) Other approaches emphasize the need to account for additional global factors, such as globalization and climate change. An example set of definitions on vulnerability used in natural hazards risk assessment and global change research is presented in Table II. Pelling(9) understands vulnerability as a concept comprising exposure (location relative to hazard, environmental surrounding), resistance (livelihood, health), and resilience

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Marino makes it known that understanding this relationship is essential in distinguishing how Shishmaref citizens have become a vulnerable community. In fact, these relationships along with historical conditions, influenced how residents in that specific community experienced disasters. In this section, the differences between a hazard and vulnerability are also highlighted to determine their interconnection with disasters; for a disaster to take place both must be present. Marino strategically follows up with chapter three to show the link between climate change, vulnerability, and disasters. The purpose of this chapter was to demonstrate how ecological changes can be contributed to the vulnerability of Shishmaref.

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The targets for this goal are going to be very difficult to measure as climate change is constantly evolving and data will therefore never be specific. “Measuring resilience and adaptive capacity to climate hazards and natural disasters in all countries” is going to be more complex than just collecting the occurrences of these climatic events. Similarly, every government is capable of observing and collecting data on their progress when considering the implementation of measures in target 13.2 and of education programs and the organization of awareness campaigns in target 13.3. However, the difficulty of measuring these targets is that their assessment is based on subjectivity, except for their financial aspect.

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1303 Words | 6 Pages

Statement of the Problem Among the events that have had a drastic shaping on human events throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are natural disasters. Often times, a natural disaster will leave residents of affected areas in a state of awe as they seek to understand what exactly happened. One such example is Hurricane Hugo.

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Officials are warning people to take precautions and avoid the flooding as much as possible to remain safe. Columbia and two other surrounding counties are taking precautions to prevent further injuries. A curfew was put into effect, citizens were told to stay indoors, and drivers were told to remain off the roads until the flood water begins to dwindle. Also, in fear of a water line break, all 375,000 people in the area were told to boil their water before using to to drink or to cook with (East Coast Rain). Restoration and reconstruction tasks lay ahead, but people still remain hopeful (South Carolina

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940 Words | 4 Pages

As per that subsequent disaster, floods can now be prevented by forming a management committee set to prevent that from happenings in every county, they say prevention is better than cure and so the government is coming up with measures to control floods. This is done by sensitizing people who live on lower grounds to move to higher grounds to prevent landslides, digging dykes and also educating citizens on disaster

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1402 Words | 6 Pages

Loss of life, property damage, economic disruption and environmental degradation all play a part in these devastating events, leaving an aftereffect with devastating challenges for these affected communities in their wake. This essay will examine some underlying social and economic factors which contribute to increased vulnerability while simultaneously challenging adaptive capacity among regional communities when facing bushfires. There are various social and economic factors that make regional communities more prone to bushfire impacts, such as population density. Many regional communities with relatively few residents distributed over an extensive geographical area make emergency response harder as emergency personnel must cover large areas with limited resources; additionally, their spread-out nature makes it more challenging for individuals seeking information or support during bushfire

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1329 Words | 6 Pages

Housing conditions are comprised of the actual physical infrastructure of the house (whether it is sub-par construction or manufactured housing), homeownership and location/overcrowding. The housing conditions directly reflect what Tierney describes as the “affluence” of the populations, which is the ability to have affordable, well-constructed, self-owned homes. Many people at the lower end of the social class strata are living in poorly made/maintain housing, which they rent, in areas that are prone to disaster. Many of these individuals are unable to afford better housing, transportation, or have the ability to evacuate or prepare for a disaster. Similarly, after a disaster, these populations have a much lower resilience due to their social factors.

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331 Words | 2 Pages

Chapter 3 of the Natural Hazards of Australia discusses the nature of Risk Analysis as a significant aspect of the management process and the classification of risk. Risk refers to the chance or situation of danger occurring that will have an impact on people, places or things. Usually contributing to some sort of loss based off the exposure of the hazard due to vulnerability. Risk management process has five significant steps which include; context, identification of risk, assessment of risk and how it can be treated. Although risk management follows a particular procedure, it is fairly dependent on the situation at hand, as every hazard is different in for example, numbers or population, location sites, and various other circumstances which

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495 Words | 2 Pages

• advising upon how to achieve compliance with current, new and amended health and safety regulations, for example the use of VDUs, working at height regulations etc.; • producing and analysing health and safety performance statistics; • auditing investigations into all accidents at work; Heads of Departments/Managers are responsible for their area’s health and safety performance by ensuring the day to day implementation of the health and safety management systems. In particular they are responsible for: • regular reviews of health and safety performance; • continually promoting a positive attitude towards health and safety to employees and others; • approving, reviewing and updating risk assessments as required, including a formal annual

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1374 Words | 6 Pages

Niloofar Sedigh Sarvestani Dr. McAdams HON 171 November 30, 2015 Claudius, The Machiavellian Prince November 30, 2015 Thesis Machiavelli argues that a true leader - The prince - must be both the lion and the fox; Claudius is cunning like the fox and feared by the people. Claudius possesses many qualities of a Machiavellian prince, such as killing King Hamlet and taking the kingdom as his own, but makes the fault of not getting rid of Hamlet. Instead Claudius insists that Hamlet stay with him and his mother as well which ultimately results in his downfall. Claudius didn't kill all those who were entitled to the throne; instead he let the queen and her son, Hamlet live.

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It is an ordinary process for humans to cope up with “demonstrable risks” (Masten, 2001) i.e. threats that have noticeably brought unwanted issues in one’s life. Resilience can be defined on two foundations; risks and positive adaptation. It is a quality of a person to accommodate with unfavorable alterations in life derived as a result of exposure to risks such as financial crisis, divorce, health problems or disaster. Therefore, resilience cannot exist in absence of risks.

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855 Words | 4 Pages

Though the community only has a small effect on the overall picture, they are the most vulnerable to all disasters and threats. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the community to prepare one another and assess the potential risks and hazards within their community in addition to what steps are needed to address the issues. It is this preemptive response and planning, especially in locations with historically reoccurring hazards that reduce the disaster effects and overall cost. This community-based effort conducted by community groups has the, “potential to make a significant and long-lasting contributions to reducing local vulnerability and strengthening adaptive capacities” (Allen, 2006, p. 97). One example of a community-organized group is Community Emergency Response Teams or CERT.

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843 Words | 4 Pages

In defining social vulnerability, the terms are different than vulnerability being applied to built systems but instead refers to potential harm to people. This means certain types of people or groups of people, whose ability to manage and recover is lessor than other portions of the population. Core elements for assessing social vulnerability must first be divided into resources and characteristics influenced by socioeconomic status, environmental and types of infrastructure within the community. Using these categories social vulnerability can be linked to levels of risk and resiliency among populations. Furthermore, measures for social inadequacies are shaped by social status, ethnicity, and gender which happened to be the makeup of many of the communities effected by Hurricane Katrina.

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727 Words | 3 Pages

The most recent flood occur in Kuching, Sarawak where heavy rainfall caused some areas around Kuching to be inundated by flood waters and most roads became congested as they were impassable to traffic. The heavy downpour was still continuing around Kuching and several stalled vehicles were left on the flooded roads. Several key places were flooded including the Sarawak General Hospital, Sarawak Contingent Police Headquarters at Jalan Badaruddin, Padungan fire and rescue station, Faculty of Medicine at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Universiti Teknologi Mara Samarahan campus, and areas around Padang Merdeka. Meanwhile, a landslide was reported to occur at mile 18 Jalan Serian Tebedu which made the road impassable. Several villagers who lived around the river banks especially in

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991 Words | 4 Pages

To do that, need a lot of food and drinking water, blankets and clothes to keep warm. Cattle may drown, harvests fail. Homes, businesses, hospitals, museums: all buildings that flood will be damaged. How much damage depends on the height of the water, the value of the building and the susceptibility to water damage. A company can be damaged not only directly by the water by also indirectly: it may have to close down and therefore will earn no money.

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