It’s Getting Hot In Here

The typhoon season is technically over in South East Asia, which gives us some time to start thinking over what has happened over the past few months. A lot was learned during 2007 in the disaster management and disaster risk reduction field. Some events showed us that we are improving in how we respond to extreme weather events; some showed that there still a lot that we need to figure out. Vietnam, where I live, was affected by five typhoons in 2007, and some of the worst floods ever experienced in the history of the country.

In the midst of record-breaking statistics, one reality became evident to me. While much has improved in curbing the economic losses of disaster and the damage to national infrastructure, the vulnerable and most affected groups in every storm continue to be the poor and the marginalized. Issues of environmental justice continue to shock me in South East Asia, and sometimes I feel lost and discouraged. While I know this reality is not unique to South East Asia, the projections for the region are particularly worrisome. Asia, the most populated continent in the world, is already experiencing increased intensity of severe weather events with greater risk of flooding, particularly in megadeltas and coastal areas. This increased intensity is a deadly mix considering the growing pressure over natural resources, particularly freshwater supplies, and the unsustainable development patterns, especially land use.

I could spend hours rambling over whom to blame for the environmental threats in Asia, but I would rather not. I believe attention needs to be given immediately to how disaster risk and vulnerability reduction are approached in the region. The main focus continues to be on reducing economic losses from disaster, but that leaves millions behind. While dikes diverting floods effectively guard industrial areas and cities from big floods, poor communities often end up living behind the dikes.

There are a few reasons I believe marginalized groups continue to suffer the most from poor disaster risk reduction schemes, and some of these are:

• Inequitable land distribution;
• Access to critical weather information;
• Limited social relief networks and means for livelihood recovery;
• Centralized disaster response;
• Top down approach to disaster risk reduction; and
• Limited options for environmental services recovery.

But the list could continue, like it currently does in the dozens of development reports and many papers in academia. I applaud the fantastic ground work done by development organizations in Asia to reduce disaster risk and improve livelihoods affected by disaster, particularly Oxfam, Care, and World Vision. I decided to share my views here hoping to hear perspectives on how to bring environmental justice out of mere rhetoric and into practice. In Vietnam, the typhoon season is over, but in only a few months the storms and floods will come back and, once again, ethnic minorities, children, and women will continue to suffer the most. The estimates of mortality due to preventable diseases associated with floods are daunting. If we know who is at risk, how to reduce it, and have the resources to do it, losing lives is unacceptable. Environmental justice must bring those behind the dikes to the front of disaster risk reduction efforts.