Importance of Community Awareness and Preparedness in Disaster Risk Reduction

Abstract

In the last 20-year period from 2000 to 2019, 7348 disaster events were reported worldwide which claimed 12mn lives and affected more than 4.03 billion people. Asia suffered the highest number of disaster events due to size of the continents, its physiography and high density of population. In terms of affected countries globally India with 321 events was third highest in terms of economic losses and loss of lives (UNDRR, 2021)
 It has been proved that countries where the communities are aware and participate in DRR activities the losses due to disaster events are low. Developing countries like India where the resources are limited communities can play very important role in DRR. If communities are involved in DRR it will not only help in reducing the burden on Government and local administration but also help communities to be self-reliant in emergency situation.
 As communities are the first responders in every disaster event it is very important to build and improve their capacities so that they can respond efficiently in event of occurrence of disaster. The scale and spread of recent COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated and proved that catastrophes which occur at this large scale cannot be handled efficiently only by Government agencies and local administration. Participation of communities whether it is RWA’s, religious groups, local political parties, philanthropist, charitable and social organisations or group of individuals are important pillars and support to handle the catastrophes by providing help and relief to the victims. Therefore, it is important to build capacities of people by creating awareness and imparting them skill and training for relief and rescue operations to manage the disasters. These skill improvement and trainings will improve the preparedness level of population to face disasters. Involvement of communities also lead to understanding of disasters and traditional coping mechanisms, their understanding of local disasters can be very effective in emergency situation. Communities understand their areas better, they know their strengths and they have indigenous methods to cope with emergencies. Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction is popular and successful approach in many developed and developing countries. Capacity building is important for communities to become resilient to disaster.