Early warning systems in disaster risk management

Everyday, people around the globe are threatened by storms, floods, droughts, landslides, earthquakes and other natural hazards and suffer because of their social, economic, geographic and environmental circumstances.

Every year news highs are being recorded for economics looses from natural disasters and the human costs are even greater. Nearly a million over the last decade by disaster caused by storms, droughts, floods and earthquake. The loss of human lives and materials could have been avoided if the proper precautions and measures had been in place.

In case of Nepal, many poor groups were hit very hard by the annual flood and landslides, firstly by the loss of the family and homes and then by the loss of livelihoods. Reducing people’s vulnerability to natural hazards is an essential condition for reducing property and achieving the Millennium development goals. Policy makers are beginning to recognize that preparedness for natural hazards needs to be an integral part of national and international development policies and practices.

Generally it is the poorest people living in the poorer parts of the world who are most affected by national hazards. Disasters risks can be countered through approaches such as public awareness, campaigns, knowledge of hazards and vulnerabilities, community preparedness programs, early warning systems evaluation plans long term land use planning and environmental protection and the application of sound building codes. Through these means governments and communities can help people to become more resilient to hazards and their impacts and thereby reduce the chance that hazards events turns into disasters.

Early warning systems are a major element of disaster risk management and reduction. To be effective early warning systems need to actively involve the communications at risk, facilitate public education and awareness of risks, effectively disseminate messages and warning and ensure there is constant state of preparedness. Early warning systems help for public safety adds the protection of human lives. It is also useful for the protection of nation’s resource base and productive assets.

Conversely by reducing the impact of disasters a government avoids the financial and political burden of massive rehabilitation costs. Investing in early warning and other measures of disasters reduction is neither simple nor inexpensive but the benefits of doing so the costs of failing to are considerable.

The reduction of environmental losses can if properly managed and publicized, have both long term benefits to the economy and short term benefits for the administration in-charge. In many parts of the world, communities do not have effective early warning systems for the hazards they experience. Early warning systems need a strong scientific and technical basis. They can be linked to bring efficiencies and economics of scale to help secure the sustainability of systems for rare hazards.

In fact people centered early warning is a system, not a technology. Warning allows people to act in order to present hazards from becoming disasters. Effective early warning saves lives, reduces economic loss, reduces disruption in society and instills confidence and a sense of security in the public. It is also an important component of the foundation of a sound economy. Effective early warning system requires strong technical foundation and good knowledge of the risks.

They must be strongly people centered with clear message dissemination systems that reach those at risk managers and the public. Although natural disasters are not precisely predictable, they are most often generally foreseen able. In other words, there are many areas where the occurrence of floods is likely; one doesn’t necessarily know exactly when, but one knows they will occur sooner or later.

Many natural hazards can be foreseen of anticipated from past experience, the analysis of current patterns of land use or population distribution. Early warning systems as well as other disasters reduction application needs to new motivated and based within government responsibilities, especially since response to disaster may require exceptional executive powers for a specific period of time but it success cannot be accomplished without the benefits of widespread decision making and the participation of many others.

One of the effective ways of mitigating the impact of natural disasters is through the provision of state of the art warning services which enable communities to prepare for the approaching storm, flood or other natural hazards and to take those measures necessary to avert the loss of life and minimize the damage caused to property and the environment.

Although government is responsible to protect its citizens to the best to the best of it’s ability; they cannot do it alone; all sectors of society must contribute. Generally in case of emergency the private sector offers complementary resources and necessary infrastructure that are needed for disseminating warnings; civil society provides social infrastructure at the grassroots.

The use of already existing capacities is not only effective but ensures the continuity and maintenance for the system. The cost of the government of implementing nationwide warning systems is significantly less when other stakeholders contribute to the costs for maintenance, management and service. It is also important that there be adequate oversight of the performance of the vital functions associated with an early warning systems; this can only be provided when multiple players are involved.

Despite the improvement in early warnings technology and communication systems, natural disasters still cause death in a massive scale year after year. There are already many indications that the scale of disasters around the world is likely to increase further in future.

Relevant causal factors include global population growth the concentration of people and valuables in large conurbations, settlements in and industrialization of extremely exposed regions such as flood plains, the increased susceptibility of modern societies and technologies to natural hazards and above all global environmental and climate change.

Major issues of child labour in Nepal

So far the child labor in Nepal is concerned, poverty is the main cause of worst form of child labor. Rural people are mostly suffered from larger family size and small land holding problems which make them main supplier of child labour. It is also estimated that four children out of five are trooped in the worst form of child labour.
The child being a very innocent illiterate and unknown person is exploited very much by the society and this is also one of the vital causes for worst form of child labour. The degree of exploitation from different ways can be listed below.
62 % children enter the work force between the age of 10-14 years.
Girls are more exploited then boy that is why they start working earlier than boys. This is reflected in the findings from different reports that 28.9% of girls in the worst forms of child labour are in the age group of 5-9 years compared to 1603% of the boys of the same age.
While working only 17.8% of the children mostly boys are allowed to attend school.
Among 38.4% of the domestic child workers are paid salary but in 59.3% of the cases parent collect the wages. This practice is more prevalent among girls children where parents collect the wages of 78.6% of the working girls.
31.6% of the boy left their workplace for another work due to low remuneration and 52% of the girl children reported that harassment was the most important reason for learning.

In many cases the salary paid to the children especially girl children in the worst forms of child labour is very low and most are not paid at all.
Though the children are exploited in every activity like above, they are now still leaving home as child labour due to the lack of love, care , proper guidance and inadequate health and food. They work between 11-15 hours a day and hardly had rest time.

Child labor in Nepal

Generally speaking today the issue of child labour is being one of the major issue around the globe. Human beings, known as social animals do have their own personality and stages which are generally divided into three stages or categories: child, adult and man or old age. According to the definition of UN general convention on the rights of the child, a child is one who falls below the age of eighteen years. If we evaluate Nepalese act relating to the child defines a child as a person below the age of fourteen, which age is taken as a very sensitive age which needs well-cared and protective environment. But due to the different circumstances/ means/ or causes like lack of awareness, poverty, ignorance of society, conventional dead values situation of children is different in all developing countries like Nepal, by which children are employed as labour in various dangerous and unhealthy works. There is no doubt that the issue of child labour is taken as gross violence of human rights, which has become a common phenomenon in Nepal as well as in other developing countries. When we are about to evaluate the status or circumstance of child labor in Nepal, according to the population, first of all it is better to know the population of child in Nepal. According to the population census 2001 the total population is 22.7 million, in which the ratio of child population is very high and is increasing in each period. The big chunk of population under the age of 14 years is getting no proper education and care which results Nepal facing serious problems of uneducated and unskilled mass of human resources.

Among the 6,225,000 population if children the percentage of school going children is only 36.7%. where the work participation of child comes to hit 41.6%.. The percentage of both working and schooling is 25.5% while only working not schooling is 16.1% . generally 95% of the total population of child work in the rural areas of Nepal. Which comes to reveal that high mobility of child population for work in urban areas of Nepal.

Working children comprise of two types, those working in their own household and those working for others or waged child. Among them most of the children are working in agriculture. Among total percentage of child population 94.7% of them involve In the agricultural work while other remaining child work in service and in technical work i.e production, construction, transportation, and communication.

Another issue about child is that among the total population of child working child comprises 36.8% male and 45.1% female child, which shows that female working percentage is higher than male. The percentage of working female children in urban areas is 21.0% and in rural area is 48.0% whereas the percentage of working male children in urban is 17.9% and in rural areas is 39.3%. It also shows the clear picture that in both rural and urban areas female children are working more than male children in case of Nepal and almost all developing countries around the globe.

So child labour, mostly in developing countries like Nepal is increasing. For the eliminating of child labor government sector, central level, district level, local level, private sector, family, community and community based organizations etc. should be aware.

Exploitation or necessity?

What do you think the butterfly is sucking the nector from a lovely flower. But is it exploitating it or is the necessity of butterfly?