Disaster Mitigation
in Asia

31 October2009
Issue No. 73

This newsletter is published through the Program for Hydro-meteorological Disaster Mitigation in Secondary Cities in Asia (PROMISE), funded by USAID/OFDA, commenced from October 2005.  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.

A. From the Region

(1) Philippines survives pummeling by back-to-back (-to-back-to back) typhoons

(based on reports from Alertnet, CNN, IRIN, NDCC, and Philippine Daily Inquirer)

Beginning from the end of September to the end of October, the Philippines endured four typhoons that entered its area of responsibility.  Typhoon Ketsana (local name “Ondoy”) had unleashed severe flooding in Metro Manila and surrounding provinces on September 26 that affected more than three million people and resulted in 300 deaths.  However, relief operations for Ketsana had to be combined with disaster preparedness activities for supertyphoon Parma (local name “Pepeng”, as the meteorological agency PAGASA gave repeated warnings that Parma was “a very, very severe typhoon”.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo ordered the forcible evacuation of residents at risk on October 2, and imposed price controls on construction materials, the mass distribution of drinking water, the release of over one million packets of instant noodles, and for the state weather bureau to report any sudden rise in water levels in dams and reservoirs near Manila.  Typhoon Parma first hit northern Luzon, caused widespread floods and landslides, killing at least 16 people and displacing over 85,800 (go here to view a map generated by NASA of the typhoon track and rainfall from Parma: http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=40687).  It devastated the agriculture sector in Luzon, raising food security concerns.  The UN launched a flash appeal on 7 October for over US$74 million for the Philippines (http://ochaonline.un.org/humanitarianappeal/webpage.asp?Page=1811), to fund priority projects for food, drinking water, sanitation, shelter and household items.

Unfortunately, the Philippines was plunged deeper into crisis on 9 October after heavy rain brought on by tropical storm Parma resulted in widespread flooding in the northern provinces and forced authorities to release water from near-bursting dams (click here to see a map of the flooded areas: http://www.alertnet.org/thefacts/satelliteimages/UNOSAT/f4f7f12d
666fa69502ac3121d2c474c9.htm).  The Philippine government and international aid and relief agencies both rushed evacuate people and to pre-position supplies, equipment, food and other relief items before the third typhoon Lupit (local name “Ramil”) made landfall on 22 October; even the Maoist rebels declared a unilateral ceasefire in areas hit by the first two typhoons.

Lupit in the Philippine language of Tagalog means “cruel,” but fortunately did not hit Luzon directly given that the death toll of Ketsana and Parma had already reached 850 people, more than 185,000 people were still living in evacuation centers, and the estimated cost of damage was about USD 700 million.  However, the preparations were put to good use for the fourth typhoon Mirinae.  Its local name is “Santi”, French for “a pious person”.  It passed through the country as people were travelling to their home towns for the Catholic religious observance of All Saints Day on 1 November and All Soul’s Day on 2 November.  Only 16 people were reported dead, as Santi hit Manila with heavy rain, flooding, and washed away shanty houses near the coast. 

(2) Floods in India affect 5 million
(based on reports from Alertnet and Reliefweb)

Low pressure area over the Bay of Bengal caused heavy rains in the states of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh (A.P) since 30th Sept. 2009 resulting in a state of emergency in both the states. The flood situation is reportedly the worst in decades, resulting in losses of homes, crops, and infrastructure worth over 220 billion rupees (about 4.6 billion USD).  In Karnataka, the death toll reached over 190 people, while more than 65 people dies in Andhra Pradesh and more than a million people had sought shelter in 100 relief camps. 

(3) Floods and landslides in Nepal

(based on a report by IRIN)

Several events of flooding and landslides triggered by late rains that occurred in early October had killed more than 60 people were killed, displaced some 4000 people, and affected 25,000 families.  Read the OCHA situation report here: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/RWFiles2009.nsf/FilesByRWDocUnid
Filename/EDIS-7WSRT9-full_report.pdf/$File/full_report.pdf. 

(4) UN Flash Appeal for Laos

The UN launched a flash appeal on 22 October of 10,153,872 USD after Typhoon Ketsana brought devastating floods to Laos, hitting some of the nation's poorest and most vulnerable people.  Typhoon Ketsana made landfall in Laos on 29 September, killing 17 people, affecting another 178,000, and damaging 20,000 hectares of rice and crop fields.  Read more here: http://www.reliefweb.int/rw/rwb.nsf/db900SID/EDIS-7WZPVM?OpenDocument#. 

(5) University of Mindanao donates one telemetric system

(based on a report by The Mindanao Times)

A RATHER low-profile event in October went largely unnoticed as everybody’s attention was caught by the typhoons barreling through the Philippines.  On October 8, the Research and Publication office of the University of Mindanao donated one telemetric system device to the Central 911 to serve as an early warning device for the communities surrounding the Davao River, the largest body of water in Southern Mindanao.  The whole project cost P1.3 million but the initial results were positive enough so that the city government earmarked a budget to buy more telemetric devices to be installed in key points of the Davao River.  Read more about it here: http://www.mindanaotimes.com.ph/?p=4181. 

(6) ADB pledges support for disaster-stricken countries

The Asian Development Bank has announced pledges of a three-million USD grant for relief assistance for Indonesia, and support for emergency relief efforts for the Philippines (three million USD) and Samoa (one million USD).  Read more about it here:

• Indonesia: http://www.adb.org/Media/Articles/2009/13042-indonesian-earthquakes-assistances/

• Philippines: http://www.adb.org/Media/Articles/2009/13015-philippines-typhoons-disasters/

• Samoa:
  http://www.adb.org/Media/Articles/2009/13024-samoan-tsunamis-assistances/

(7) New Philippine Law on Climate Change

On 23 October 2009, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed Republic Act No. 9729, or the Climate Change Act of 2009, “AN ACT MAINSTREAMING CLIMATE CHANGE INTO GOVERNMENT POLICY FORMULATIONS, ESTABLISHING THE FRAMEWORK STRATEGY AND PROGRAM ON CLIMATE CHANGE, CREATING FOR THIS PURPOSE THE CLIMATE CHANGE COMMISSION, AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES.”  The act declares that it is the Philippine State’s policy to provide “full protection and the advancement of the right of the people to a healthful ecology in accord with the rhythm and harmony of nature”.  Within this policy is the intention to stabilize the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, integrate disaster risk reduction into climate change programs and initiatives.  The act calls for the creation of: 1) a Climate Change Commission; 2) a Framework Strategy and Program on Climate Change; 3) a National Climate Change Action Plan; and 4) a Local Climate Change Action Plan.  Read the full text at: http://tonyocruz.com/?p=2536. 

(8) India NDMA guidelines on certifying disaster management concerns in projects
(based on a report from the Times of India)

The Indian National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) has issued guidelines for the Ministry of Finance to require all ministries and departments to certify that local disaster vulnerability of a particular project has been addressed.  Each project in a natural hazard prone area will have disaster prevention or mitigation as a pre-condition, and the project document has to reflect as to how the project addresses those conditions. 

(9) Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning Drill
(based on reports from Alertnet, BBC and Reuters)

The Indian Ocean now has its own early warning system, which was tested in a United Nations-backed simulation exercise on 14 October by eighteen countries.  The drill simulated the 2004 quake off the coast of Sumatra.  National tsunami information centers have been set up across the region, along with buoys on the ocean surface and several deep in the sea to detect abnormal wave movements. Alerts are also sent out by radio, television, SMS messages and other methods.  For an informative article on how the tsunami warning system works,
go to: http://www.alertnet.org/db/an_art/59567/2009/09/28-122125-1.htm. 

(10) CNN Investigative Report: Tsunami warning funds squandered in American Samoa

Public records show that the Department of Homeland Security had awarded millions of federal dollars in grants for disaster preparedness here, including the construction of an island-wide siren warning system. However, all the federal funding was frozen in early 2007 after DHS inspectors found that the local American Samoan government had been diverting millions of those dollars for its own uses. The CNN investigation came to a single conclusion that the earthquake-triggered tsunami in September was in many ways a man-made tragedy.  Read the report
here: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/americas/10/27/asamoa.
tsunami.warningsystem/index.html?eref=rss_world.

B. Calls for Submission

(11) Call for Presentations: 20^th World Conference on Disaster Management

Organizers: WCDM and the Canadian Centre for Disaster Preparedness.  Presentation abstracts are now being accepted for the 20th World Conference on Disaster Management to be held June 20-23, 2010, in Toronto, Canada. Submissions should be related to this year’s theme: “Twenty Years of Progress—Are We Prepared to Face Future Challenges? Emergency Management and Business Continuity Working Together.” The deadline for submissions is 6 December 2009.  Information on topic streams, submission guidelines, selection criteria, and speaker compensation can be found on the online submission site here: http://www.wcdm.org/. 

(12) Call for Participation: 6^th U.N. Day for South-South Cooperation Global South-South Development Expo

Organizer: Special Unit for South-South Cooperation United Nations Development Programme.  On 19 December 2009, the UNDP will hold the Global South-South Development Expo will be held at the World Bank Main Complex in Washington, DC from December 14-17, 2009.  The GSSD Expo is a platform for developing countries and their development partners - including donor agencies, organizations of the United Nations system, and private-sector and civil society organizations - to showcase their evidence based South-South development solutions.  Both individuals and organizations are encouraged to register and nominate solutions in four focal areas: (1) South-South and Triangular Cooperation; (2) Climate Change and Environment; (3) Health; and (4) Food Security.  For further information, please contact the Secretariat through: Special Unit for South-South Cooperation United Nations Development Programme, 304 East 45th Street, New York, NY 10017 Tel. 212-906-6944 Fax. 212-906-6429;
email: gssdexpo.secretariat@undp.org, www.southsouthexpo.org.

C. Conferences and Courses

(13) MapIndia 2010

Organizer: GIS Development.  The 13^th Annual International Conference and Exhibition on Geospatial Information Technology and Applications is accepting abstracts for its upcoming event on 19 - 21 January at Epicentre, Gurgaon, India.  It has a visionary theme 'Defining Geospatial Vision of India'..Deadline for abstracts is 24 October 2009.  For more information, go to:  http://www.mapindia.org/2010/conference/theme.htm. 

(14) GIS for Disaster Risk Management (advanced course) – Bangkok, Thailand: 7 - 18 December 2009

Organizer: Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).  The course GIS for Disaster Risk Management (an introductory course) – Bangkok, Thailand: 11 - 22 May 2009

Organizer: Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC).  The course provides an excellent opportunity for professionals and practitioners to obtain essential skills and knowledge in GIS and RS and their current application in disaster risk management. Participants will gain practical and technical knowledge on the uses of GIS and RS in disaster prevention, preparedness and emergency response.  The course is co-organized with the International Institute for Geo-information Science and Earth Observations and the Asian Institute of Technology. 
For more information, please go to: http://www.adpc.net/v2007/Downloads/2009/Sep/GIS2/GIS4DRM-II_2009_Web.pdf.

D. Useful Resources

(15) Forced to Flee, IRIN, 2009

IRIN Films has two additional films for “Forced to Flee” – a powerful series of short films about internal displacement.  Around the world tens of millions of people have been forced to leave their homes. Some have been driven out by conflict, some by natural disaster. Some have been displaced in the name of development, others by climate change. Find the films at: http://www.irinnews.org/filmtv.aspx. 

(16) Small Islands, Big Impact, TVEAP, 2009

In a short new film released online for the International Day of Climate Action on 24 October 2009, President Nasheed calls climate change both a global human rights issue and a security threat to small, low-lying island nations such as the Maldives.  The film was produced by the regional media foundation TVE Asia Pacific (TVEAP) in collaboration with COM+ Alliance of Communicators for Sustainable Development. It is based on an exclusive interview President Nasheed recorded recently with TVEAP's Director Nalaka Gunawardene.  Access the film at: http://tiny.cc/SIBI. 

(17) Republic Act No. 9729, the Climate Change Act of 2009, Congress of the Philippines

http://tonyocruz.com/?p=2536 

(18) This month in Asia’s disaster history

On 7 October 1968, precipitation ranging from 500 to 1000 mm caused floods in the Darjeeling area, and unleashed about 20,000 landslides and killing thousands of people in West Bengal.  These landslides occurred over a three-day period. The 60 km hilly highway from Siliguri to Darjeeling was cut off at 92 locations by landslides, resulting in total disruption of the road transportation system.  Read more about it at:

• http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/apr102008/858.pdf
• http://sikhim.blogspot.com/2008/07/lest-we-forget-from-save-hills.html
• http://www.boloji.com/environment/185.htm