The long game of disaster management

The year 2024 has been marked by many events, from elections to celebrating 30 years of democracy. However, it was also marked by a devastating building collapse in George in the Western Cape, adding it into the disaster management handbook.

This ‘handbook’ includes the annual summer fires in the Western Cape, devastating floods that normally occur in KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, and a Cape of storms, which have all been recorded in the country – not only this year, but over many years, and are now becoming recurring events.

Dr Phindile Sabela-Rikhotso – who has worked in the province’s disaster management team and is currently a lecturer at the University of Cape Town’s (UCT) Department of Environmental and Geographical Science – noted that the urgency of the George building collapse in May was to “save lives and evacuate people”.

In disaster management, swift action and agility are crucial. The ability to quickly assess and adapt to changing circumstances can save lives. The George building collapse underscored the importance of an immediate response, resource coordination, and recovery efforts. Effective disaster management requires ongoing preparation and flexibility to minimise long-term impact.

“It is crucial to note, however, that the disparities in capacities across sector departments and organs of state determine the levels of disaster risk management in that context.”

Dr Sabela-Rikhotso then mapped out what disaster management looks like. Someone does the risk assessment: a person who looks for red flags in areas and profiles the area. It then moves to the preparedness person to draft contingency plans: this individual looks at where and how resources, including people, would need to be deployed. In an event of an incident, responders are then assembled to manage the immediate needs of the affected. After the disaster, rehabilitations and recovery efforts kick in (sometimes overlapping with the response efforts).

“This stage is in ensuring that sturdier rebuilding takes place. In all these, the role of the disaster manager is not to be on the field per se, but to make sure that coordination of all these components is actively happening,” she explained. “It is crucial to note, however, that the disparities in capacities across sector departments and organs of state determine the levels of disaster risk management in that context. In less capacitated municipalities, it could be one person carrying out all these duties whereas more affluent municipalities, cities in particular, are able to employ an array of specialists for each of these responsibilities.”

Agility

In October, the Western Cape provincial government noted that it had had eight “disastrous events” in eight months. A “disaster” is defined in South Africa’s Disaster Management Act 57 of 2002 as either a progressive or sudden and widespread or localised event that is either natural or human caused. The event must cause or threaten to cause death, injury, or disease; damage to property, infrastructure, or the environment; and significant disruption of the life of a community.

“Disaster management plans are updated seasonally. And those briefs make their way from municipalities all the way to the National Disaster Management Centre (NDMC). These plans are regularly tested for readiness through simulation exercises,” she said.

Regarding the disaster in George, she said: “The next steps are thinking about where you’ll take people, how you’ll feed them and how you’ll connect them with their loved ones. And then the social relief process of identity documents. For George, the first people who would have had to be there are rescuers with the know-how to pull apart the huge slabs and get people out of the wreckage.”

“For George, the first people who would have had to be there are rescuers with the know-how to pull apart the huge slabs.”

A final report looking into the matter is yet to be finalised and risk specialists across the country will be looking forward to taking some lessons from its findings.

She added: “There’s a great amount of agility in disaster management because no incident is the same because there are contributing factors. For example, two fires can happen in Dunoon on consecutive days, but the response might be different: maybe the one day there is traffic and the next none, and that’s where the agility stems from.”

Sabela-Rikhotso was asked to share her thoughts on President Cyril Ramaphosa’s proclamation of wanting to turn South Africa into a “construction site” and whether or not the country has a maintenance problem of its structure. Maintenance is not the determining factor, in her view, but the way we do everyday life.

Humans are first to start deterioration via littering and inadequate waste collection. Invariably waste makes its way into river streams, drainage system and overextend our bridges. “Disaster risk reduction is what we do every day (with our infrastructure) rather than a hazard itself that exacerbates the situation; my argument really is that with good resources, culture of care from both communities and government, and strong coordination of the two. Even the “strongest disaster” will not cause devastating losses and damages.”