Owen Kock
Bloemfontein. – This week saw the top brass in disaster management in the country meet in Bloemfontein to discuss how disasters could and should be handled at all levels in South Africa.
The Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa’s theme for this year’s conference was Building Resilience: Communities Getting Ready.
Various topics were discussed, from dolomite sinkholes to disaster management, to risk-mapping to name but a few.
An interesting topic presented by the University of the Free State’s Johanes Belle, was the study conducted into dolomite sinkholes in the Zonkizizwe Extension Six in Kathlehong, where large sinkholes are an everyday occurrence.
In his paper Belle said dolomite sinkholes are threatening many communities in the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality.
“Findings indicated that the majority of respondents did not understand dolomite sinkholes and the associated risks and therefore did not adopt any sinkhole risk- reduction measures. It was revealed that television, radio and newspapers were the most accessible information channels that could be used for awareness campaigns,” Belle said.
He said the practical implications could be summed up as follows:
“There is a need to increase the awareness of the community regarding dolomite sinkholes in order for the community to adopt risk-reduction measures. There is also a need to consider the most relevant and accessible communication channels for dolomite sinkhole information dissemination.
“The research indicated that people living in a risky area lacked knowledge thereof and did not apply or plan risk-reduction measures. Available information channels were not used effectively by local authorities,” he added.
Another topic of interest was Incident Management, presented by Francis Hoets from Disaster Management Solutions.
She highlighted the fact that the loss of life, damage to property and the environment caused by impact of a range of incidents of both natural and technological origin, result in major social, economic and environmental losses within South African communities.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s the poorest communities living in severe conditions of vulnerability that are frequently and repeatedly exposed to both minor and major incidents. Repeated and frequent exposure to both minor and major incidents severely undermines the coping abilities and long-term resilience of communities.
“As a result, individuals / households / communities are constantly in recovery or survival mode, always picking up the pieces before the next incident occurs.
The Deputy Director of the Free State Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries tasked with forestry regulation and oversight, Malcolm Proctor, presented a paper on what should happen after risk-mapping has been completed.
“Technological advancement in fire-fighting should have had a decisive positive effect by now if the problem was only a matter of fire suppression, especially given the serious general increase in fire-fighting budgets in this time period. However, the reality is quite different. It can easily be shown that the problem is much more complex than just improving fire-fighting effectiveness alone.
“As disaster reduction becomes essential to sustainable development, disaster reduction policies and measures need to be developed and institutionalised at national and local levels. They should enable communities to be resilient to natural hazards while ensuring that development efforts do not increase vulnerability to those hazards. The need for a comprehensive strategy to reduce the risk of veld fires to communities and the environment is the result of growth in the veld urban interface that is placing more citizens and property at risk of veld fire,” Proctor concluded.
