CoGTA Ministry commemorates the International Day for Disaster Reduction
The Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Honourable Des van Rooyen delivered a keynote address at the seminar to commemorate the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR). This event was held at Birchwood Hotel in Kempton Park under the theme: Reducing Disaster Mortalities: Live to tell.
The Minister emphasised the role that our country is playing to ensure that:
- South Africans live in an environment that is not harmful to their health and well-being;
- that is protected to prevent pollution and ecological degradation;
- where conservation is promoted;
- and ecologically sustainable development is secured.
Over the last decade, the International Day of Disaster Risk Reduction has been used to focus on safer schools; keeping Hospitals Safe from Disasters; Urban risk reduction and Safer Cities.
“We are meeting today in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew which left behind death and destruction in Haiti alone and many people displaced in the US. This catastrophic event is a timely reminder of the importance of the International Day for Disaster Reduction and the need for planning to mitigate risks.
Minister touched on the Sendai Seven Campaign which was launched in July 2016 by the UNISDR (United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction) as an advocacy initiative to encourage implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction. This campaign is an important tool that will go a long way in saving lives, reducing disaster losses and improving management of disaster risk.
The Minister quoted Dr Robert Glasser, a Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, who stated that: “Despite many successes there are still far too many lives being lost in predictable events because of failures to deploy early warning systems.
Hence learning from past events and to grasp the growing threat of climate change and its impact on extreme weather events, including storms, floods and drought should be an important part of our plans.” To this effect , the Minister called for comprehensive approaches that takes into consideration best practices from the lessons learned thus far in disaster risk reduction.
Even though the loss of human life as a result of disasters in South Africa is still relatively low when compared to other countries, there are some occurrences that tend to claim lives, hence the importance of learning from the experiences across the world that will help in putting together comprehensive plans and approaches.
The Minister commended the provinces that have developed and implemented risk reduction strategies. These strategies includes early warning systems, implementation of lightning conductors; upgrading of road infrastructure; installation of smoke detectors to raise alarm on shack fires, rolling out of safer stoves, fire and burn prevention interventions and efforts of building better partnership with business, communities and other structures.
It is this forward planning that will surely save lives and property. Knowledge and awareness of natural hazards have the potential to influence behavioural change on how people can best protect their lives, properties and livelihoods, thereby contributing to disaster resilience.
The seminar noted that it is important to work together and address all types of disaster risks, whilst meeting the global target of reducing disaster deaths by 2030.
As we are meeting today, South Africa is experiencing one of the worst drought conditions in many years. The current assessment shows that Dam levels are at their lowest, hence Minister warned that the situation can be worse in the coming months if people fail to use water sparingly.
“This seminar is taking place just days before the UN Habitat 3 which sets out to determine the New Urban Agenda. The Draft Quito Declaration states that - We envisage cities and human settlements to adopt and implement disaster risk reduction and management, reduce vulnerability, build resilience and responsiveness to natural and man-made hazards, and foster mitigation and adaptation to climate change”, said Minister van Rooyen”
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