Abhas Jha's blog

The Japanese phrase “Shikata ga nai (仕方がない)  -loosely translated as "it can't be helped" -captures the essence of the resilience and sense of duty towards one’s community that the Japanese people displayed in the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami. One of the initial images that captured this spirit after the horrific events of March 11 was that of the unsung shop assistants rushing to stop items from falling off shelves instead of running to save their lives.

Photo courtesy of chidanands through a Creative Commons license.

Coke sells 1.6 billion servings per day. You can find Coke in the remotest, poorest and most unlikely parts of the planet. I recently came across this fascinating video of a talk by Melinda Gates. She asks: For those of us working on development, what are the lessons to take away from Coke’s enormous reach (and success)? According to Ms. Gates, there are three:

1. Invest in real-time data that feeds back into the product. If you're running Namibia for Coca-Cola, and you have 107 constituencies, you know where every can versus bottle of Sprite, Fanta or Coke was sold, whether it was a corner store, a supermarket or a pushcart. So if sales start to drop, then the person can identify the problem and address the issue.

A power substation in Yingxhou, Sichuan Province was almost totally destroyed in the magnitude 7.9 Sichuan-Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.

The statistics are startling. 75% of global flood mortality risk is concentrated in only three Asian countries: Bangladesh, China and India. 85 % of deaths from tropical cyclones are in just two Asian countries: Bangladesh and India. Indeed, Bangladesh alone accounts for over three-quarters of people dying from tropical cyclones. 85% of global earthquake risk is concentrated in only 12% of the earth’s surface—a large part of it in Asia. In 2009, six of the ten countries with the highest mortality rates and GDP losses from natural disasters were in Asia.  82% of all lives lost in disasters since 1997, are in Asian countries.

We have all probably heard the old adage “Earthquakes don’t kill people, buildings do”. Recent temblors in Haiti and earlier in China have tragically demonstrated the truth of this. Out-of-date building codes and regulations, poor enforcement and badly-planned urbanization have all greatly increased the risk of urban disasters all over the developing world.

First responders from Shanghai training for the Shanghai Expo 2010

The first 72 hours after the disaster are the critical time for urban search and rescue (USAR) teams to save people from under collapsed buildings. We have all seen the fantastic job done by the international USAR teams in Haiti. The procedural deployment and standards of these teams are coordinated by UN-OCHA’s International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG). This is a global network of more than 80 countries and organizations focusing on USAR related issues.  Members are from both earthquake-prone and responding countries. It was established in 1991 following initiatives of international USAR teams which responded to the 1988 Armenia earthquake and aims to establish standards and classification for international USAR teams as well as methodology for international response coordination in the aftermath of earthquakes and collapsed structure disasters.

A collapsed building in Port-au-Prince. Photo by IFRC/Eric Quintero under a Creative Commons license.

The scale and magnitude of the earthquake in Haiti has shocked, saddened and horrified us all. But there is a silver lining to this great tragedy. Looking back in history, great natural disasters are often a catalyst for huge, positive change.

The great fire of London in 1666 led to a massive rebuilding effort, better building regulations and, in the end, a safer, cleaner city that maintained the medieval street plan that is still visible, to some extent, today. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting discussion of how the impact of the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon led to the creation of a new metropolis with earthquake-proof buildings, wide thoroughfares and a sewer system. The massive reconstruction financing required after the great fire of Copenhagen of 1795 led to the creation, in 1797, of Kreditkassen for Husejere i Kjøbenhavn (The Credit Association of Copenhagen homeowners), the precursor of modern mortgage markets.

Flood affected areas in Metro Manila Region and Rizal Province, Philippines. Hi-res version. Canadian Space Agency Image processing, map created 29/09/2009 by UNITAR/UNOSAT.

Saturday morning, September 26, in Washington, DC: I am driving my daughter to class. I check my Blackberry and see an urgent email from Mukami, our Disaster Management team member in Manila, asking me to call her. (I need to stop reading emails at red lights. It’s probably against the law and it’s certainly obsessive).

I call Mukami on her cell-phone. She says that Manila has seen some of the worst flooding in its history after Typhoon Kestana dumped 16.7 inches of rain in just 12 hours on Saturday. The Government is immediately looking for satellite images to help in the search and rescue efforts. Some World Bank staff were still unaccounted for. She also asks about what other assistance the Bank can offer the Government in the aftermath of this disaster.

I spent last week at the 2009 UNISDR Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction in Geneva. The Global Platform, attended this year by some 1,800 participants from more than 300 Governments and Organizations, is the premier gathering for the worldwide Disaster Risk Reduction community, including political leaders and their policy advisors, UN agencies, international organizations, and scientific/academic institutions. The first event was held in 2007.

The World Bank’s East Asia and Pacific region had a strong presence at the Platform with representation (pdf) from all of its countries and regional partners like ASEAN and SOPAC. The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) had its semi-annual Consultative Group meeting on the sidelines of the Platform on June 15. This was an important meeting for us since the Country Programming Profiles that we had prepared for resources from GFDRR for 2009-11 were up for consideration. The profiles were prepared by our country focal points in strong partnership with government authorities with the aim of leveraging scarce GFDRR resources into a coherent and comprehensive disaster risk management program. Donors endorsed the proposed program and were very appreciative of the process followed.