M Mabuyakhulu: Disaster Management Conference

25 May 2006

Programme Director;
The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Honourable S.J. Ndebele;
The Honourable MECs present;
The Honourable Members of Parliament present;
The Honourable Mayors from all our Municipalities present;
Our esteemed Amakhosi present;
Members of the Diplomatic Corps present;
Councillors present;
Disaster Management Institutions;
Heads of Departments present;
Municipal Managers;
Representatives from humanitarian organisations present;
Disaster Managers present;
Experts in the field of Disaster Management present;
Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) present;
Community-based organisations (CBOs) present;
Development agencies present;
Development experts present;
Representatives of farming community;
Dear delegates
Ladies and gentlemen;
All protocol observed;

I wish to extend a word of gratitude to all delegates who have traversed the
corners of our province, our country and the rest of the world in response to
our call as government to make our communities safer. Your presence here today
is an assurance that you are equally concerned and committed to the protection
of all our communities against disasters. As government we wish to be brutally
frank in admitting that our efforts in dealing with major disasters lack proper
synchronisation. This reality obtains in both developing and highly developed
economies with supposedly adequate resources. As we search for answers, we
learn from our local experience as well as the experience in the rest of the
world. This conference takes place against the backdrop of this reality.

In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, in the USA, Amanda Ripley wrote for
the Times Magazine (2 September 2005). Her words are pertinent to today’s
purpose when she says “Humans are not good at understanding risk, and in the
United States of America they perform worst when it cost a lot to prevent or
prepare for a disaster especially when the people who would otherwise suffer
the most are poor.” Reference to the poor in the context of failure to provide
adequate disaster management facilities is glaringly pertinent in our province,
our country and indeed our continent given the high levels of poverty.

In KwaZulu-Natal, as is the case in the rest of South Africa, we have a
social contract with the poor communities in terms of which we shall reverse
the impact of discriminatory policies of the past. Unlike in highly developed
economies, the poor amongst us are not an exception but they remain the key
focal point of our endeavours. Amanda’s frustration is amplified by Susan
Carter – Director of Hazards Research Laboratory at the University of South
Carolina - who also commented on government systems response to Hurricane
Katrina. I think this conference must learn from her experience when she says
“a system that cannot airlift water and food to a community that is desperate
for it, is a system that is broken” (Time Magazine - September 2005).

In KwaZulu-Natal, we accept our role to manage disasters as a collective of
government departments, the private sector and stakeholders including civil
society. We are encouraged by the legislative framework which makes provision
for indigenous knowledge systems and institutions to play a meaningful role in
disaster management.

Unlike in other parts of the world, we have to accept that access to
disaster management capacity is a rights issue. Communities in the rural areas
of our province cannot continue to be seen as second or third-rate citizens.
There is no human rights basis to justify access to disaster management
facilities in and around affluent suburbs against the absence of similar
facilities in the rural areas. However, we acknowledge the realities of
apartheid planning. Disjointed and segregated disaster management
infrastructure planning is at the core of our disaster management challenges
today.

As government, we welcome today’s conference as a platform to chart the way
forward in the development of land-use management systems which will ensure
that access to disaster management capacity is open to all our people without
discrimination. We must use the opportunity to interrogate the inclusively and
integration of our planning systems and mechanisms. As we deliberate on these
issues we must bear in mind that the exclusion of the majority of our
communities from the general development and service delivery infrastructure
was deliberate. In the wake of new order legislation ushered by the democratic
dispensation, we must take bold steps in ensuring that all communities enjoy
acceptable levels of basic health and safety.

As we gather here today, we have to ask serious questions and find solutions
on how to break down the silos created by the period and mentality of “own
affairs”. We have to find out why the integrated planning process has been
unable to successful integrate the disaster management requirements of rural
and township communities in our municipalities’ disaster management plans. We
cannot continue doing business in the same way as we did ten years ago and
expect to see different results.

We find ourselves in a beautiful province, one endowed with rolling hills
and pristine coastline. Unfortunately, this beauty impacts on our
vulnerability. We have to manage our industrial activities on land and at sea
in a manner that is informed by high levels of disaster management
preparedness. Unlike other provinces, our preparedness must take into account
our topographical realities. Experience in places like Ntambanana Municipality
and others has shown us that the beautiful hills pose serious access problems
in our attempt to evacuate our people during disasters. This reality confirms
what we have known for a long time that we have to work harder in this province
to achieve the same results that are achievable elsewhere in the country for
less effort.

Programme Director, disaster management practitioners throughout the world
will agree that the public sector, the private sector and civil society must
collaborate to restore service delivery to communities affected by disasters.
In KwaZulu-Natal we are still addressing service delivery backlogs. We have set
ourselves targets to deliver water, sanitation and electricity to all our
people by 2014. We sadly note that those with no access to basic services such
as water, electricity, housing and sanitation are the ones who are most likely
to be affected by disasters. I’m talking about our people in informal
settlements and those living in inadequate shelter in rural areas.

Disasters occur and they will continue occurring even beyond the service
delivery target dates. We must , however, find disaster management answers for
communities that are currently without access to basic services. Our primary
concern in disaster management should be to reduce the vulnerability of poor
people to disasters, whilst the main issue is that of the rapid response after
a disaster has occurred. This, however, should be juxtaposed with the action
that should be taken before disasters occur in order to reduce their
impact.

Programme Director, losses from disasters is a severe threat to all our
efforts at poverty reduction, especially among us as a developing nation.
Natural disasters can have a long-term impact on economic growth and
development, therefore the connection between disaster management and economic
growth, poverty and planning makes disaster management a core development issue
for everyone. As many of us may know what happened in the Ilembe District five
days ago, have brought stark evidence of what happens to people and property in
and after natural disasters. This was a direct result of what happens when an
effective early warning and information system is not in place. The reality is
that natural disaster happens and will happen again, we cannot stop them, but
we must develop ways of mitigating the risks and consequences of disasters. In
most cases it is the poor who are the most seriously affected by natural
disasters. Poor communities are often forced to live on more fragile land and
they have little or no resources to recover from disasters. We know , however,
that as government, municipalities and experts gathered here we can help in
many areas by raising awareness, setting up effective early warning systems and
implementing effective measures to mitigate the risk and the consequences of
natural disasters. Disaster management is about making the right development
choices in the municipalities’ Integrated Development Plans (IDP) such as where
to locate a housing project, a school, how to protect buildings better and most
importantly how to pursue sustainable development. It is even more urgent now
than before that we move faster on these fronts. This is also important as we
work towards meeting the Millennium Development Goals. Reducing the
vulnerability of our people to natural disasters must be part of our collective
effort to achieve the Millennium Development Goals.

As we welcome the planning and prevention approach introduced by the new
order legislative framework, we are fully cognisant of our capacity
limitations. The realities of the responsive methodologies espoused by civil
protection legislation of the past deprived us of appropriate disaster
management curricular and expertise. We have had to rely on emergency services
as the core of our disaster management capability. For this unfortunate reason
we have not been able to transform this critical component of government, the
private sector and civil society. In fact the KwaZulu-Natal disaster management
programme at the level of province has only started now to seriously address
its own capacity problems. I am encouraged to note that it is no longer managed
by “makeshift auxiliary capacity”. I do hope that the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial
Disaster Management Centre will be managed by an appropriate capacity at the
end of the restructuring process of the department. As the Executing Authority
responsible for this critical area I wish to send an unambiguous message to
government and private sector role players that disaster management as a
component is not intended to create employment for redundant capacities.

I note with cautious optimism that municipalities are succeeding in the
establishment of disaster management centres. It is still a matter of concern
that a number of district municipalities (8 out of 11) do not have a finalised
disaster management plan. We still have six district municipalities who do not
have district disaster management centres. These are basic compliance
requirements in terms of our legislation. We must understand the urgency and
the critical nature of these requirements against the background of challenging
realities and general service delivery infrastructure backlogs. When the
municipal demarcation process was finalised, one of the glaring realities was
the inclusion of expanded rural areas within municipal boundaries. The
rationale behind this inclusion was undoubtedly to fast track service delivery
to the communities living in rural areas. These communities are poor and
vulnerable to disasters. The low disaster management competency levels in
district municipalities are responsible for the absence of district disaster
management strategy and programme of action. This disappointing state of
affairs prevails notwithstanding the absolute clarity in the legislative
framework. As a province we have a responsibility to rise to these challenges
and make sure that district disaster management centres are established and
that the appropriate requisite capacity is secured.

Programme director, in this province we must strive for the integration of
disaster management capacity. We must encourage the private sector to open its
doors and service all communities in our province. Corporate social investment
must include the dimension of being a good corporate citizen whose business
survival is linked to the survival and basic health and safety of communities
in and around business premises and industrial development zones. We can no
longer have little islands of “disaster management privilege” around business
centres surrounded by the vast rural territories with no disaster management
capacity. We must all mark this conference as the beginning of change in the
way we do business. Deliberations in this conference must inculcate innovation
amongst us. We must find ways to align our institutional strengths and
encourage the sharing of resources by municipalities, the private sector and
civil society. We must ask serious questions about our failure to establish
shared service centres in district municipalities. As we discuss the allocation
of powers and function we must identify barriers to opportunities for
innovations such as shared service centres. We must be candid about our
shortcomings.

Programme Director, allow me to go back to the issue of the poor and
poverty. I return to this issue because the poor are always invisible and
indistinguishable and are consequently silent. We have seen the amazement of
governments at the anger, destruction and violence associated with poor
communities during and after disasters. The mayhem and destruction during and
after hurricane Katrina in New Orleans is a case in point. We have to plan and
prepare ourselves for disasters in a manner that acknowledges the critical role
to be played by our communities. The involvement of our communities was started
by our government way back in 1994 in the consultation process that culminated
in the finalisation of the White and Green Papers on disaster management.
Although there had been in numerous disasters throughout the country, the Cape
Flats floods of 1994 highlighted the need to reform our legislation to
introduce planning and consultation.

Programme Director, our legislation makes provision not only for community
participation but it also makes provision for the acceptance and usage of
community experience in disaster management including indigenous knowledge
systems. It is our understanding that this provision in the legislation seeks
to ensure that the total ability of the community is mobilised in response to
disasters.

Programme Director, a Herculean task awaits delegates at this conference in
the next two days. This conference is challenged to thoroughly interrogate the
nature of disaster management challenges in KwaZulu-Natal. At the end of this
summit we want to understand the extent of our vulnerability in order to
establish best practices in the vulnerability monitoring systems.

In the second instance, it is our intention to unpack the requirements of
the legislative framework and to understand the critical areas of focus that
must be highlighted in our programme of action. We will seek guidance from
those in attendance today and learn from their practical experiences.

In the third instance, we will interrogate our own status in terms of
emergency preparedness. We must ask serious questions on what should be the
bare minimum capacity requirements to ensure that we are in a position to deal
with emergencies in our urban areas, our townships, rural areas, farms and
protected areas.

Fourthly, it is our objective that by the time this conference ends we have
designed a programme of action for response and mitigation of impact. In doing
this, we want to take into account all the variables. In the main, the most
critical variables are the professional maintenance of existing capacity
standards in the urban areas and the establishment of infrastructure and
systems in the rural areas.

In the fifth instance, we want to identify elements of a provincial
prevention and risk reduction strategy. To this end, we encourage delegates to
be realistic and innovative in suggesting ways in which risk can be prevented
and reduced. We encourage delegates to discuss the co-operation of the various
stakeholders at planning and implementation levels particularly given the
opportunities afforded to us by the Inter-Governmental Relations (IGR)
legislative environment. We expect serious questions to be asked around issues
such as the allocation of development rights. We must find out if environmental
considerations carry sufficient mandate to cover disaster management
requirements in respect of new developments that are approved. If this is not
the case, this conference must resolve accordingly.

The Programme director, we expect this conference to provide guidance on
that most critical area of disaster management that is referred to as “recovery
and rehabilitation”. We experience escalated human suffering as a result of our
peculiar topography. Recovery and rehabilitation is about the restoration of
human functioning activity to the pre-disaster status quo. We need answers and
direction in a province where flooding has a potential to pollute rivers and
springs in areas where there is no piped water supply. This is one example
amongst many which have caused the KwaZulu-Natal Disaster Management Centre to
note that high mortality and morbidity escalate drastically during recovery. In
real terms, this means that we lose fewer lives at the point of impact compared
to the high numbers of lives lost progressively during recovery and
rehabilitation.

We also wish to establish a very firm basis for the institutional framework.
We need volunteers at all levels. We must mobilise our combined capacities to
deal with disasters in terms of the legislation.

We need to establish quick response teams, of disaster specialists for rapid
deployment to assist our people in disaster affected areas. This includes
providing them with the knowledge and training.

As part of our disaster prevention strategy, this conference must consider
as part of its resolutions the establishment of “superdomes” within
municipalities. These superdomes will act as places of safety where people
affected or likely to be affected by a disaster could be evacuated and
sheltered. These must be high tech structures which must be constructed in such
a way that they can hold out against quakes, and be able to resist hurricanes
and storms. In order to realise the creation of such structures we will need
among other things, to consider the joint funding of such ventures by both the
municipalities and the private sector. While the primary task of these
superdomes will be centres of shelter during the time of a disaster, they will
assets to municipalities that can also be used by communities as Multipurpose
Centres.

This conference is expected to provide a programme of action to assist
municipalities in identifying potential disaster management forum members, the
drafting of terms of reference and the retention of appropriate capacity. We
know that the highest level of co-ordinating body in the province is the
Provincial Cabinet Task Team. We also know that the Provincial Disaster
Management Forum is a requirement of legislation. However, we must encourage
the participation of private and civil society.

We must look beyond the participation of indigenous community structures. We
must ask ourselves about the participation of the youth, women, organised
formations and others. We must know the nature and type of structures that are
involved in disaster management in informal settlements and townships. We must
establish disaster management practices of the various diverse communities of
our province.

We must establish minimum capacity requirements for disaster management
centres. We must send messages to our institutions of higher learning that
curricular transformation is not complete if these institutions are not able to
establish appropriate disciplines for the grooming of future disaster
management practitioners. At this point, we will expect direction and guidance
on the final details of management capacity requirements, infrastructure and
equipment requirements and general systems and procedure requirements.

We have to identify gaps in the existing early warning systems and to close
them step by step through specific projects.

At the end of this conference we must have developed clear programmes of
action so that people affected by disasters receive help more quickly and
efficiently and are in future better protected from the forces of nature. We
have to presume that natural disasters will remain a regular feature of our
lives. It would be illusionary to hope that in future we will be spared of
droughts, floods, hailstorms, earthquakes etc. For this reason humanitarian
assistance will remain indispensable.

People marooned by floodwaters must of course be rescued and provided with
necessities such as shelter, food and clothing. It is for this among many other
reasons that we have called on non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Cob’s and
humanitarian organisations to partner with us as we develop a “Provincial
strategy and programme of action for disaster management in KwaZulu-Natal”.

However, since preventing disasters is always preferable to salvaging what
remains, it is important that this conference set the focus strongly on
disaster prevention. Whenever we manage to prevent natural hazards from turning
into disasters, we spare a lot of our people untold sufferings. A philosopher
once said “it is only human action or inaction that turns nature into a
disaster, which raises the death toll and causes wide spread damage”. While we
may not conquer the forces of nature, we must be better prepared for them and
find wiser ways of facing them. As United Nations Secretary–General, Kofi Annan
once observed “we must shift from a culture of reaction to a culture of
prevention”.

Programme Director, we hope that delegates will enjoy themselves in the
commissions. I encourage all of you to participate fully and I assure you that
your contribution will inform our programme of action. I wish to thank you for
your time and I hope you will have a wonderful stay in this beautiful city.

In conclusion let me remind you of the words of Rachel Carson, who in 1962
wrote in the book titled the “Silent Spring”. She observed that “the human race
is challenged more than ever before to demonstrate our mastery-not over nature,
but over ourselves.”

Let us work together then at this conference not to master nature for we can
never do that. Let us work together to master our efforts and to serve the most
vulnerable people in our province and our Country.

I thank you.

Issued by: Department of Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs,
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
25 May 2006