cause of disaster management on covid 19 , covering
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Answer:The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) crisis has significantly redefined the humanitarian emergency paradigm and changed our understanding of disaster management in several ways.
First, the crisis is not limited by a geographic area or a cluster or physically defined areas in which the disaster occurred — as in an earthquake, flood or cyclone.
Second, effects of the disaster are so microscopic and invisible that one can easily underestimate its virulence or potency, as it happened in the early days of the pandemic. Earlier epidemics like SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) and those due to bird flu and Ebola had a relatively lower geographical influence, but the speed of transmission and virulence of COVID-19 has posed an entirely new challenge.
Third, to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19, we have severely restricted the process of globalisation, travel and access, which we welcomed with wide open arms two decades earlier.
On the other hand, while human society worldwide is under severe stress due to lockdowns, we are witnessing an altogether cleaner and more vibrant environment both in urban and rural habitats. Nonetheless, what began as a health crisis has now quickly snowballed into an economic crisis, caused, ironically, by some of the very steps that were taken by public authorities to prevent further spread! Little wonder then that several industrialised nations are still struggling to contain the levels of infection and fatality rates in their populations.
In countries like India, we are seeing how high population densities, coupled with the impossibility of physical distancing in small housing units, lack of running water and toilets, shortage of hygiene materials and personal protective equipment can exacerbate infection rates in several clusters that then become hot spots or red zones for the pandemic.
So how we can manage disasters in the future?
With the nature of disasters changing constantly, they can surprise us by their unpredictability and speed of onset, despite our access to the most advanced and sophisticated information and early warning systems.
We have seen in recent disasters the inability to predict the incidence of mudslides or the amount of water to be held or released in dams during heavy rains — whether in Mumbai, Kerala or Chennai in recent years. The ferocity of volcanic discharges recently in the Philippines and New Zealand surprised many scientists and earthquakes continue to surprise us with their relative unpredictability.
Will the water from melting glaciers or rising ocean levels suddenly assume more catastrophic dimensions or smaller events like lightning incidents assume more alarming proportions in the coming days? The ability of disaster management authorities to reasonably predict or anticipate would be put to test in the days to come.
One of the issues that came to the forefront in the COVID-19 crisis in India was the seeming inability of governments to anticipate the impact of the suddenness of the lockdown on migrant labourers in various parts of the country. One question that we need to ask is this: Did we respond fast enough?
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The speed of response would need to be gauged not only how quickly we enforced physical distancing and lockdowns, but also in the speed and reach of preventive messaging. Did we use the time during the lockdown to prepare the government machinery, mobilising and training of health personnel, procuring testing kits, ventilators and personal protective equipment?
The speed of response is often linked to the ability to procure materials in a timely and cost-effective manner in every disaster. Notable among the countries that responded quickly have been Taiwan and Hong Kong which could therefore contain the infection levels quickly.