Special Political Decolonization
United Kingdom
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
A disaster is a sudden event, such as an accident or a natural catastrophe, which
causes great damage or a great loss of human life. To the citizens of the world, a disaster
is a crushing blow that destroys hopes, ruins life styles, and causes devastation. In fact, in
2008 alone, disasters killed a total of 1,243,480 people and caused $108.2 trillion in
damages.1 Apart from the death toll, disasters also leave lasting effects on regional
infrastructure. For example, during an Algerian earthquake in 2003, 50% of the region’s
hospitals were left unusable.2 However, these problems can be avoided through efficient
disaster prediction, prevention, and relief. Disasters have been prevalent especially in
recent years, with the added factor of climate change. World temperatures rose 1.5°C
from 1997-98 due to the El Niño phenomenon, sparking increased concern in the UN that
climate change was directly related to the increased frequency of natural disasters.3 This
event caused many revisions of disaster reduction policies around the world. However,
this still was not enough, because many disasters continued to be dealt with poorly. For
example, in 2005, both meteorologists and geologists warned the United States of the
impending Hurricane Katrina that would be one of the most destructive storms that the
US had ever experienced. In addition, there were several infrastructural flaws in the New
Orleans levees and buildings. Despite various warnings, emergency transportation and
shelters for those affected by the storm in New Orleans were not arranged until the day
after Hurricane Katrina struck.4 Furthermore, in reference to the New Orleans levees, The
commander of the Army Corps of Engineers later admitted that “The collapse of the
levees was due to a design failure”.9 Although Katrina was a huge failure from the US
government perceptive, it does show that using a correct mixture of predictions,
Special Political Decolonization
United Kingdom
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
technology, communication, and collaborative assistance, the amount of world disasters
can be greatly reduced.
In recent years, the United Kingdom has faced many destructive and costly
disasters. For example, in 2000, fierce flooding occurred all over England, costing an
estimated total of £500 million and damaging or destroying over 8000 homes and
businesses.5 Following this, during the 2004 floods in Birmingham, 2,000 calls for help
were received by British authorities in less than 27 hours. Then, in 2007, more floods
ravaged in many counties in South England and Wales. Only 13 citizens died, but 55,000
properties were flooded, 350,000 people lost access to water supply, and the British
government was left with billions of pounds in damage costs.5 Due to this wide variety of
disasters that have occurred in the past decade, the United Kingdom was able to develop
and modify many of its disaster reduction solutions.
The United Kingdom developed the first domestic disaster reduction solutions in
2001, when the Civil Contingencies Secretariat was established to improve emergency
response at all levels, from national to local. After this, the Civil Contingencies Act of
2004 was enacted partly due to the 9/11 terrorist attacks.5 It implemented many new
emergency preparation solutions. The CCA states that in the event of an impending crisis,
the UK government must contact all the organizations and parties involved in the
emergency response and must outline their responsibilities clearly.5 Another provision of
the CCA is to define new duties for the local and national governments and governmental
agencies in the event of an emergency.5 The UK has greatly improved domestic
emergency response systems through these solutions and others. Apart from the
development of the CCA, the United Kingdom has increased disaster awareness and
Special Political Decolonization
United Kingdom
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
invested in different technologies for more accurate meteorological predictions. For
example, due the floods of 2007, the UK has designed new mapping technologies to
identify locations of imminent floods and flood susceptible locations within the country.6
To strengthen structural resilience against flooding, the United Kingdom has also
recognized the need to fix outdated drainage systems. The UK has done this by
implementing effective drainage reconstructions. These are just a few examples of how
the UK has improved disaster reduction efforts within the nation.
In order to ensure that disasters are dealt with in an efficient and effective way,
the United Kingdom urges a worldwide effort. The UK believes that the United Nations
Disaster Assessment and Coordination group (UNDAC) should be responsible for
overseeing the communication and preparation of disaster reduction forces. UNDAC is
an organization that quickly responds to disasters and sends trained volunteer relief forces
as soon as possible. The UK urges nations to identify possible impending disasters in
their own nation or in neighboring nations and to notify UNDAC. This can be done
through an efficient use of technology. Facilities should be built to monitor and predict
natural disasters. These facilities can be modeled after the Indian Ocean Warning System,
a disaster warning system that identifies possible typhoons threats in the Indian Ocean
and warns nearby national governments.7 Technology such as modified SPY-2 lasers and
weather balloons can be used to monitor the surrounding environment.8 With this
information supplied to them, UNDAC can identify the type of disaster and coordinate
disaster response accordingly, based on the nature of the disaster.
To effectively manage these warnings, the United Kingdom proposes a UNDACmanaged plan. Upon receiving a disaster warning, UNDAC should delegate the task of
Special Political Decolonization
United Kingdom
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
disaster control and relief to their standby disaster response forces in various locations
around the globe, which work with national governments to coordinate disaster response.
UNDAC should then work cooperatively with national governments to create a regional
system of disaster response forces. This system will place the regional disaster forces in
strategic locations, based on a given region’s susceptibility to certain disasters. These
forces will also be specialized for certain types of disasters and will be designated to
regions with a frequency of the given type of disaster. For example, disaster forces that
are specialized in floods, typhoons and tsunamis will be placed in the Southeast
Asia/Pacific region. Additionally, there will be more forces placed in this area than in the
United Kingdom, which has a lower frequency of disasters than South Asia does. This
specialization principle provides for the most efficient type of disaster reduction.
However, response is not the only solution. Infrastructure must also be improved in
disaster prone areas. For example, an ISDR report stated that hospitals that were
retrofitted or restructured were barely affected during Hurricane Ivan, reducing their
damage by approximately 20-40%.2 Infrastructural developments are relatively low cost,
so these changes can be easily implemented anywhere in the world. In fact, an ISDR
report states that hospitals can be built to be disaster resilient by spending only 4% more
and already existent built hospitals can be retrofitted for only 1% of the cost of building
an entire hospital.2 The World Bank and the IMF will provide funding for UNDAC and
all of its projects. For nations that provide additional monetary aid or services to the
UNDAC, specialized disaster prevention tools such as radar scanners will be provided to
them. Using these special regionalized disaster reduction systems, the world can be less
hampered by the devastating effects of disasters.
Special Political Decolonization
United Kingdom
International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
Works Cited
1 – International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies. World Disaster
Report 2009. Rep. Geneva: ATAR Roto Presse, 2009.
2 – International Strategy for Disaster Relief. Making the Case for Hospitals Safe From
Disasters. Rep. Geneva: ISDR, 2008.
3 – Hand, Jane. International Strategies for Disaster Reduction. Brief.
4 – Williams, Brian. “Hurricane Katrina: What went wrong.” MSNBC.com. 28 Aug.
2006. NBC. 18 Sep. 2009
<http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14559053/ns/nightly_news_with_brian_williams
-after_katrina/>.
5 – Kapucu, Naim. “Emergency and Crisis Management in the United Kingdom:
Disasters Experienced, Lessons Learned, and Recommendations for the Future.”
Rep. U of Central Florida, 2008.
6 – “'National effort' urged on floods.” BBC News 11 June 2008. 17 Sep. 2009
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7446561.stm>.
7 – United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific. Tsunami
Early Warning Systems in the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. Rep. New York:
United Nations, 2008.
8 – “Predicting Major Weather Disasters.” Science Daily 1 Aug. 2006. 14 Sep. 2009
<http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006/0801predicting_major_weather_disas
ters.htm>.
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International Strategy for Disaster Reduction
9 – Walsh, Bill. “Corps Chief Admits to ‘Design Failure.’” Nola.com. 6 Apr. 2006. 19
Sept. 2009. <http://www.nola.com/frontpage/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-5/
1144306231230500.xml>.
10 – Tompkins, Scott. “Prevention Is Better than Cure.” Guardian 4 Aug. 2009: Web. 17
Sept. 2009. <http://www.guardianpublic.co.uk/drainage-infrastructure-floodprevention>.