Volcanic Risk and Crisis Management on Grande Comore Island

Abstract

While the volcanology of Grande Comore has been widely described, issues of crisis management raised by a vulnerability census have only been treated superficially, and disaster-related risk-reduction work is almost non-existent. Four recent eruptions, in April 2005, November 2005, May 2006 and January 2007, led to a renewed scientific interest in the volcano’s eruptive history and mechanisms of eruption, as well as in volcanic risk assessment and crisis management in the Comoros Islands.The crisis management system built up over the last few decades has been much improved over the last few years. However, this system is still weak due to structural vulnerabilities in the country. In this chapter we describe the risk and crisis management protocols, explain how they have been implemented over the years, and suggest ways to improve the handling of the next volcanic crisis.