CATASTROPHE AND AFTERMATH: TIME TO EMPOWER COMMUNITIES AND UTILISE THE EDUCATION SECTOR

 

All of us need to learn a lesson from the worst flood in decades.

Just like what I emphasised in my last article, I would like to remind all parties about the need to develop emergency preparedness. Preparations must be made to deal with all forms of threats, not just floods. The authorities’ rush to focus on just water management alone will not be enough to save the country from future crises. 

To date, it seems relevant authorities have just focused on day-to-day operations and daily press releases. Perhaps, the government is too busy to think ahead or perhaps it just has too little knowledge to really plan for the future.

During the longer school break, people involved in the educational arena have seen a variety of volunteer activities. They have appeared in news reports and social media at most universities. This is also the case at King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi (KMUTT).

At KMUTT, we are going to start the second semester this week and will continue with our volunteer work. Although we have never been prepared to deal with this before, we are determined to learn and plan ahead. KMUTT lecturers have already rescheduled and redesigned our course syllabuses to fit the co-helper plan. It means that we will start the second semester with adaptive lectures concerning recovery plans for catastrophes. 

In order to prepare students for the post-disaster recovery plan, we had held several meetings among faculty members in order to understand the recovery strategies and human resilience in the aftermath of a catastrophe. So, I have intensively studied the previous research to prepare ahead for our adaptive syllabus, to try to focus on the right issues to discuss with students about the aftermath and recovery plan. I found interesting articles to share with readers and colleagues.

A lesson learned from the article “Understanding the Economic Costs and Benefits of Catastrophes” (2007), by Greenberg, Lahr, and Mantell, suggests five elements of disasters that may be subjects of post-event criticism: 

-Investments and protection of engineered structures;

-Land-use and facility planning; 

-Resiliency and pre-event mitigation; 

-Evacuation and relocation; 

-Levels and stages of restoration. 

 

The researchers emphasised that proactive analyses of these five elements may be used to estimate the costs and benefits of various kinds of policy-driven actions. 

Furthermore, UN Habitat published a Theme Paper on sustainable relief and reconstruction in post-crisis situations (2005) and summarised six established principles for enhancing community sustainability, as follows:

Maintain and, if possible, enhance residents’ quality of life; 

Enhance local economic vitality; 

Ensure social and intergenerational equity; 

Maintain and, if possible, enhance environmental quality; 

Incorporate disaster resilience and mitigation; 

Use a consensus-building, participatory process when making decisions.

This information should be summarised and routinely presented to key political leaders. Moreover, the government should initiate a meeting of private companies, universities, and government agencies to recover more quickly in the aftermath of catastrophes. 

Additionally it is important to set out the conception of planning for resiliency and goals for recovering communities and industrial area.

It is also necessary to convince communities and to involve citizens in planning for disasters. This may reduce barriers of social involvement and enhance the government in planning for the aftermath.

Importantly, the government must issue an unambiguous policy to foster a plan for resilient communities and post-disaster recovery at all levels – regional, district and local levels.

The urgent need is rapid action planning. Such a development planning process would empower Thai communities, both the victims and volunteers, to join government activities without doubt. 

We may not know what the best practice should be for collaboration between communities and the government. Yet, I am sure that Thais want to see right action and quick support from the government in the long-term plan, so less will suffer in the future.

 

PRIYAKORN PUSAWIRO

Learning scientist, Computer Engineering Department

King Mongkut's University of Technology Thonburi

[email protected]