What’s the greatest challenge of Habitat’s Disaster Response program?
In disasters, systems fail. Infrastructure, technology, communication – everything is susceptible to break down. Ongoing or systemic problems that are manageable in routine circumstances may be a serious problem in a crisis. Our ongoing challenge is to plan ahead, develop alternative solutions, train, test and practice in order to respond more effectively in the next disaster. Are the obstacles different at every disaster? Absolutely. The disaster itself is different – flood, earthquake, hurricanes, civil conflict. The environment is different – the culture, available materials, land availability, logistics, financial resources and most importantly, the capacity of our local offices. How important is teaching preparedness and mitigation in the mission? Has that approach changed over the years? Disaster preparedness and mitigation has a measureable impact on saving lives. UN statistics show that average annual death tolls due to natural disasters have dropped from over 75,000 per year (
