Disaster Mitigation
in Asia

30 September 2006 
Issue No. 39

The Program for Hydro-meteorological Disaster Mitigation in Secondary Cities in Asia (PROMISE), funded by USAID/OFDA, commenced from October 2005. Through consultations with a number of ADPC partners, five project countries have been selected – Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam – for implementing demonstration projects in each country in a highly vulnerable city with recent history of hydro-meteorological disasters. Other components of the program consist of capacity building, risk management advocacy, networking and dissemination initiatives in the selected countries. The objective of the program is to contribute towards reduction of vulnerability of urban communities through enhanced preparedness and mitigation of hydro-meteorological disasters in South and Southeast Asia. The implementation of city demonstration projects are expected to continue during July to September 2006. The planning and development of city interventions and of training programs to be delivered in each country by the PROMISE partners should be the main focus from October to December 2006.

PROMISE Activities for September and October 2006:

• BANGLADESH - BDPC is continuing the ward sensitization meetings in two areas of Ward #2. Thirty-five participants attended the meeting for Ward #2, responding to invitations sent to all types of members of the community. BDPC met with the Ward Commissioner to coordinate the meeting, and the Commissioner issued the invitations to participants During the course of the meeting, the project was introduced to the participants, and the ward's disaster risk management committee was formed and the change agents identified.
• PAKISTAN - AKPBS,P collected rainfall data for the unusually heavy rain that happened in September that resulted in the flooding of large areas of Hyderabad. Hazard mapping and vulnerability assessment was being conducted for the study areas. Thirteen staff members attended the GIS training conducted by ADPC, and after the training the collection of data points for a GIS application on flooding began. An MOU with the Sindh Agricultural and Forestry Workers Coordinating Organization (SAFWCO) as training partner was developed and signed. In other news, AKPBS,P is one of two organizations that received the World Habitat Award from UN Habitat on October 2, 2006 in ceremonies in Naples, Italy, for innovative and sustainable housing solutions. The other winner is the Johannesburg Housing Company in South Africa.
• PHILIPPINES - CDP and Dagupan City's Technical Working Group conducted two workshops on Early Warning and Evacuation. The first workshop was for 60 participants from the 8 pilot barangays of Dagupan. The second workshop was for 35 participants from the City Disaster Coordinating Council. The second workshop included sessions on risk mapping, and a discussion and eventual clarification of the roles of the various members of the council. CDP and Dagupan City Government also participated in the preparations for the PROMISE Regional Course on Governance and Disaster Risk Reduction, the 2006 PROMISE Annual Working Group Meeting, and for the study trip to Dagupan City. The study trip to Dagupan was covered by the local media, and appeared on the online publication SunStar, and the article can be found at http://www.sunstar.com.ph/. The activities for the next month include installing the flood markers for the early warning system, developing a collaboration with Dr. Rhodora Gonzalez of the University of the Philippines for spatial data collection by student volunteers, and the implementation of small-scale flood mitigation measures.
• SRI LANKA - Sarvodaya is continuing the hazard and vulnerability mapping, with six communities already in the process of mapping. The six communities are also developing their respective emergency response plan and mitigation plan. The site selection for measuring points for the early warning system has begun, with four points identified. Their technical partner, the National Building Research Organization, has begun surveying river cross sections and the hydrological modeling. Sarvodaya contacted key partners in search and rescue operations, and a SAR team has been formed to include the UNDP, the Kalutara Disaster Management Committee (DMC), the Kalutara District Secretary, and Sarvodaya. The location for an Emergency Operations Center has been identified, and the training for the emergency operating procedures are next to be developed.
• VIET NAM - CECI finalized the hazard and vulnerability assessment of Da Nang City, and submitted it to ADPC. The assessment covered three hazards: typhoon, drought, and inundation. The most exposed wards of the Cam Le District, the study area for Da Nang City, were identified per hazard as well as the ward most exposed to all three hazards. The impacts of each hazard were assessed, the specific vulnerabilities were identified, and the capacities to cope were identified. Recommendations for improvement for each ward were made specific to the vulnerabilities faced and original capacities of the respective communities. CECI also finalized the training manual for the Community-Based Disaster Risk Management, and will implement the CBDRM training next month.

SPECIAL FOCUS ON PROMISE ACTIVITIES

• The regional course on governance and disaster risk reduction was launched in Manila on September 25. It is designed to develop local government professionals sensitive to issues presented by recurrent hydro-meteorological hazards. The course covered urban governance and risk management, vulnerability reduction, community-based and participatory approaches to disaster risk management, and mainstreaming risk reduction as a component of governance. Participants came mainly from country partners and the demonstration cities in this program: Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Center (BDPC) with Chittagong City Corporation in Bangladesh; Sarvodaya Shramadana Movement (Sarvodaya) with the Kalutara Municipal Council in Sri Lanka; Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) with Da Nang City Government in Viet Nam; and Center for Disaster Preparedness (CDP) with Dagupan City Government in the Philippines. Other invited guests came from organizations that are targeted to adopt the courses developed in this regional course, for integration into their existing training programs on local governance.
• The 1st Annual Working Group Meeting for PROMISE was held on 2-4 October in Manila. The meeting covered the status, implementation, and monitoring of PROMISE, and will have planning workshops for the second year of the program. Delegations from the five program countries (Bangladesh, Pakistan, the Philippines, Sri Lanka and Vietnam) attended the meeting. Each delegation consisted of the senior executives of each country partner, representatives from the demonstration cities, and other invited guests who will provide technical support to country partners. Representatives from each delegation presented status reports on hazard and (participatory) vulnerability assessments conducted so far. Only the representatives from Da Nang City government could not attend due to flight cancellations and emergency operations in response to tropical storm Xangsane.
• A study trip to Marikina City was conducted on October 4 as part of the Working Group Meeting, and was hosted by Marikina City Mayor Ma. Lourdes C. Fernando. At Marikina, a presentation was made on the city's flooding risk mitigation activities, with emphasis on flooding risk assessment and relocation of informal settlers. After the presentation, the participants visited the emergency telephone hotline "162" operations center that receives all emergency calls for immediate response by the police, fire brigade or the city's emergency medical service.
• A study trip to Dagupan City was conducted on October 5 for PROMISE national coordinators and Mr. Robert Barton of USAID-OFDA. The trip was hosted by Dagupan City Mayor Benjamin Lim and Ms. Mayfourth Luneta of CDP. A brief visit was made to the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources research center, a facility that supports the bangus fish industry of Dagupan. Most of the visit was to the eight pilot barangays to observe the barangays' early warning system, evacuation centers, hazard maps, and workshop outputs (including timelines, behavior assessments, social Venn diagrams and problem tree analyses).

A. FROM THE REGION

(1) Typhoon Xangsane lashes at the Philippines, 28 September 2006

(based on reports from the Philipipine Daily Inquirer, Reuters, NASA, the IFRC, and the US Embassy in Manila)

Typhoon "Milenyo" (international name: Xangsane) brought Metro Manila to a near-standstill on September 28. The strongest typhoon, shown in this MODIS satellite image from NASA, to hit Metro Manila directly in 11 years caused the cities of Manila and Muntinlupa have declared a state of calamity following the devastation by Typhoon Milenyo.
In Manila, 897 barangays were affected. Mayor Lito Atienza said it was the first time the Manila city council declared a city-wide state of calamity. Muntinlupa evacuated 1,264 families in the city's eight barangays. Manila Councilor Ernesto Dionisio, majority floor leader, said that with the declaration, each barangay could use USD 600 to 1,000 from its calamity fund for rehabilitation purposes.
The international community is responding to the impact of Typhoon Xangsane. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is launching a preliminary emergency appeal for 5.7 million Swiss francs (USD 4.6 million) to support the Philippines National Red Cross (PNRC). U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Kristie A. Kenney issued a disaster declaration on September 29, and the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) is providing $100,000 to the Philippine Red Cross.

Left figure: Satellite image of Xangsane over the Philippines from NASA website.

The only positive outcome was in Taguig City where the typhoon washed away breeding grounds of dengue-carrying mosquitoes, leading to a 56% drop in dengue cases after the typhoon hit. A listing of the impacts reported in newspapers includes:

• Flooding and landslides
• Luzon-wide blackout
• An estimated 18,000 houses in Luzon were either destroyed or damaged by Milenyo
• In Metro Manila, damages of P100 million in landscaping and P30 million in traffic equipment.
• For Region 8, the total damage to infrastructure, crops and fisheries is at PhP 133 million.
• Thousands of trees felled
• Billboards and lampposts felled
• Trucks and cars overturned
• Suspension of classes in all levels in Metro Manila
• All government offices in Metro Manila were closed
• Thousands stranded as flights and sea travel were canceled
• Overhead trains systems stopped
• Trading on stock and currency markets suspended

(2) Typhoon Xangsane hits Danang, Viet Nam, 1 October 2006

(based on on reports from Reuters, BBC, NASA, the US Embassy in Hanoi, and globeandmail.com)

Flooding killed dozens of people in the days after Typhoon Xangsane hit Viet Nam. An estimated 300,000 peoplewere evacuated from Viet Nam's central coastal provinces to safer locations. The Vietnam government said 59 people died and 7 were missing after the typhoon hit on Sunday, but state-run media accounts indicated a higher death toll of at least 68, citing provincial disaster reports. A Danang city health official was quoted as saying that 435 were injured and more than 1,000 residents had been hospitalised.
The government estimated the cost of the damage at 10 trillion dong (USD 624 million). The storm's fierce winds and rain destroyed or damaged hundreds of thousands of homes when it slammed into Viet Nam's central coast. Nearly 320,000 homes were destroyed or submerged. Homes collapsed and roofs were ripped off in Danang and the nearby ancient town of Hoi An. Xangsane damaged roads, telecommunications and power networks, fisheries and crops along a roughly 1,000 km (600-mile) stretch. Danang had the worst damage estimated at USD 200 million.
The U.S. Embassy Hanoi through the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) is providing $100,000 to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies for support of relief operations by the Red Cross of Vietnam.
Xangsane, which means "elephant" in the Lao language, weakened into a tropical storm weakened after landing in Vietnam, moved westward to Laos, and dissipated over northern Thailand.
Right figure: Xangsane track forecast from NASA website.

(3) Man-made mud "volcano" in Indonesia, 5 October 2006

(based on reports from the New York Times)

A natural gas well has become geysers of mud and water in a largely man-made calamity in the making. As of October 5th, the mud has inundated eight villages in Kendungbendo, covering an area 1.5 square miles, and forcing the evacuation of around 13,000 people. The highway and railway lines have been cut, and homes and factories are submerged.
The mud is continuing to flow at the rate of about 170,000 cubic yards a day. The problem was originally perceived as a mud volcano that was set off by seismic activity. Now, it seems the disaster occurred as a company, Lapindo Brantas, drilled thousands of feet to tap natural gas and used practices that geologists, mining engineers and Indonesian officials described as faulty. Lapinto was drilling an unprotected well bore, and the mud started seeping in from the sides at a depth of about 6,000 feet. The company installed plugs to seal off the mud intrusion, and the mud flowed elsewhere, erupting through the earth's surface as several mud volcanoes or geysers.
The costs of the cleanup could easily reach $1 billion. The New York Times reported that Indonesian officials describe the best option is to pump the mud into the Porong River, which flows into the sea 20 miles north of here. The proposal will lead to severe damage of the ecosystem around that area.
However, the New York Times reports that Lapindo's parent company The Bakrie Group announced that it was selling Lapindo for two US dollars to Lyte Ltd., a company that is registered in the offshore island of Jersey. The majority shareholder in the parent company is the Bakrie Group, and the Bakrie Group is also the sole owner of Lyte, according to public documents.

B. CALLS FOR SUBMISSION

(4) Call for Papers: Risk and Rationalities Conference, March 29-31 2007

Economic and Social Research Council's Social Contexts and Responses to Risk Network is calling for papers for a Risk and Rationalities conference to be held in Cambridge, United Kingdom, March 29-31, 2007. The theme is how people identify and manage risks and uncertainties, stressing the importance of rational action, of culture, of emotions and affect, of everyday cognitive heuristics, of intuition, and of the role of trust. E-mail abstracts (maximum 150 words) by Friday, October 30, 2006, to Mary Mustafa at M.Mustafa@kent.ac.uk; +44 (0)1227 827102. For more information, visit http://www.kent.ac.uk/scarr/events/rrcontext.htm.

(5) Call for Entries: St. Andrews Prize for the Environment

The University of St. Andrews and ConocoPhillips have announced the call for entries for the ninth international St. Andrews Prize for the Environment. Applications are invited from individuals, multidisciplinary teams, and community groups for the 2007 annual prize of $50,000 for the winner and $10,000 each of the two runners-up. Entries should give innovative solutions to environmental problems. The solutions should be practical, combining good science, economic reality, and political acceptability. Anyone wishing to join should submit a single page project summary of no more than 500 words by October 31, 2006. For more information visit: http://www.thestandrewsprize.com/ or the St. Andrews Prize for the environment office, +44 (0)1334 462544 or + 44 (0)1334 462161 (Scotland);prize@st-andrews.ac.uk.

(6) Call for Entries: Asia and Pacific Student Essay Competition on Sustainable Development

ADB and ROAD, with support of the Japan Special Fund, financed by the Government of Japan, invite university students to participate in the Asia and Pacific Student Essay Competition on Sustainable Development. The rules are simple: just submit an essay on one of the designated themes via this website http://mms.adb.org:8000/adb-essay/register.php no later than 31 October 2006.

(7) Call for Papers: Confronting Catastrophe

A session on "Confronting Catastrophe: New Directions in Disaster Research and Policy" to be held at the joint meeting of the Midwest Sociological Society and the North Central Sociological Association in Chicago, Illinois, April 4-7, 2007. Papers will be considered that examine any topic concerning the preparedness for, response to, or recovery from natural, technological, or human-initiated hazards and disasters. Both U.S. and international cross-cultural research are welcome. For more information, go to http://www.themss.org/ or contact William Lovekamp (welovekamp@eiu.edu) and Lori Peek (lori.peek@colostate.edu). Deadline for submissions is October 31, 2006/.

(8) Call for Papers: Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment

The Technical Program Committee for the 32nd International Symposium on Remote Sensing of Environment is seeking papers for the symposium, which is scheduled for June 25-29, 2007, in San Jose, Costa Rica. The committee will consider and evaluate all abstracts submitted that focus on topics/subtopics related to disaster risk reduction and/or using remote sensing technology: Abstracts are due no later than November 15, 2006. Find out more at http://www.cenat.ac.cr/simposio/callforpapers.htm and http://www.cenat.ac.cr/simposio/submission.htm.

C.   CONFERENCES AND COURSES

(9) 2007 ISDR World Disaster Reduction Campaign, October 11, 2006

Organizers: United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) .This year's International Day for Disaster Reduction is Wednesday, October 11. For more information about the 2006-2007 World Disaster Reduction Campaign, including a press kit, case studies, a list of events, and online resources, visit http://www.unisdr.org/wdrc-2006-2007/.

(10) Winning Against Disasters - Roles of Education, Development and Community Action for Sustainable Development. Tokyo, Japan: October 19, 2006

Organizer: Asian Disaster Reduction Center. ADRC will hold a public forum "Winning Against Disasters - Roles of Education, Development and Community Action for Sustainable Development" at U Thant International Conference Hall, UN House in Tokyo from 14:00-17:30 on 19 October 2006. The deadline for registration is October 12, 2006. For more information, please visit: http://www.adrc.or.jp/events/octoberforum/October_Forum_E.htm.

(11) Flood Disaster Risk Management. Bangkok, Thailand: March 5-16, 2007

Organizer: Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC). This course offers an integrated approach to the development of flood risk reduction strategies that involves engineering, settlement, development, public administration, community-based strategies, and land use planning (with environmental considerations). For more information, please contact the Training Resource Group, ADPC; tedadpc@adpc.net; http://www.adpc.net/trg06/trg_home.htm.

(12) International Conference on Water and Flood Management. Dhaka, Bangladesh: March 12-14, 2007

Organizer: Institute of Water and Flood Management (IWFM) of Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (BUET). The purpose of this conference is to address issues related to water and flood management to promote environmentally sustainable development. For more information, contact the IWFM Conference Secretariat; +880 2 9665601 (Bangladesh); icwfm@iwfm.buet.ac.bd; http://www.buet.ac.bd/icwfm/.

(13) 15th World Conference in Disasters and Emergency Management. Amsterdam, Netherlands: May 13-16, 2007

Organizers: World Association for Disaster and Emergency Medicine. The conference central themes are preparedness, knowledge, training, and networks. For more information, please contact: +31 (0)20 444 8444 (Netherlands); paog@vumc.nl; http://www.wcdem2007.org/.