Government Incapacity: Barrier to Integrated Hazard Management

Some say the world will end in fire, others say in ice...

I'm not sure if this week is particularly catastrophic or whether I am just more attuned to tragedy due to my own recent experience of losing a close friend. Never-the less, it seems there are forces at work, beyond our control, all over the world. Tornados rip across Minnesota, fires and smog engulf Russia, mudslides flatten northwest China and flooding wreaks devastation in Pakistan.

Whilst these are largely unpreventable natural hazards, the management and post-disaster relief is all human. Richard Holbrook, US envoy to Pakistan, has described the flooding there as a "major international humanitarian catastrophe", but sadly these situations are just all too common. Collaborative flood relief and recovery efforts are well underway, although the rain keeps falling and the waters are still rising. The United Nations claims that millions of dollars in aid money will be needed to repair damaged infrastructure, but the problems extend much further than that. Displaced people, potential lawlessness and the spread of disease are just the tip of the iceberg. In the meantime, citizens are angered by the governments poor responce to the hundreds and thousands left homeless. The government has attempted to restrict media reports by closing down two cable operators, GEO TV and ARY News. The Associated Press of Pakistan has reported 1,204 dead, 1,309 injured and 3 million affected, whilst the UN reports estimates of almost double those figures.

The CIA factbook lists Pakistan's main environmental issues as water pollution from raw sewerage, industrial wastes and agricultural run off, lack of fresh water and potable water, deforestation, soil erosion and desertification. Known natural hazards include frequent earthquakes and flooding. Natural disasters are hard enough to endure and recover from in high income, democratic states. How will a tenuous state such as Pakistan cope with this devasation? More than anything, Pakistan needs an integrated approach to overcome it's environmental and social issues but also to improve it's economic and political situation. But where do you begin? Pakistan has major territorial disputes with neighbouring countries, especially in Kashmir, over a million refugees and displaced people, not to mention smuggling, drug trafficking, terrorism, civil unrest and corruption. The military is listed as the most important political force (it's not supposed to be a lobby group!!) closely followed by the clergy (ulema) and there is a note on the CIA factbook web page stating that their information on political parties and leaders is only a guide because political alliances frequently change! How to make sence of this quagmire and how to achieve progress? If post-disaster relief is not undertaken in an integrated way, millions of dollars in aid money will be rendered largely ineffective.

The unique character of post-diaster and post-conflict planning is that management is primarily conducted by external agencies. The extreme lack of government capacity to overcome the level of complexity in these situations is in itself one of the greatest challenges. Aid agencies are a disparate group themselves and have varying agendas. UN and coalition led security missions are largely focused on military conflict and terrorism, UN agencies such as UNHCR, UNDP or UN Habitat have their own expertise and concerns. There are state-funded organisations such as USAID along with innumerable independent NGOs each with specific agendas and missions. As they are all independent from each other, there are no clear lines of responsibilities or standard operating procedures. Sometimes their shortfalls can be as simple as assuming they know 'what is best'. An example from neighbouring Afghanistan where foreign aid money paid for wells to be built thoughout villages achieved an unexpected result in one village. In the central Bamian province, a well was blown up. An unusual target for militants, it was discovered the women of the village destroyed the well. The reason for this odd behaviour was because the women of the village no longer had the opportunity to walk to the river and engage in social interaction with other women away from the men. In a 'blue-print' approach to foreign aid, sometimes the underlying fabric of a communnities needs are overlooked.

Vanessa Watson (2009) writes on the challenges for post-conflict and post-disaster planning from an urban planning perspective. She advocates for an integrated framework to overcome the barriers to planning caused by lack of authority and public function. Previous work on this subject by UN Habitat has made use of spacial structure planning to link short-term actions with long-term objectives. It also was a way of integrating the disparate aid agencies and their actions. Watson looks at some of the underlying causes of conflict. She identifies land/property rights as central to re-establishing stability. She also draws attention to the importance of informal institutions and processes which are often more deeply ingrained than the formal ones, indicating a community-based process is the only way to resolve such issues. Some other approaches identified include hazard vulnerability and risk mapping as an essential component to integrated environmental management. Common themes to assist post-conflict and post-disaster management include: have a strategic vision, be flexible and avoid being fixated on an end goal (goal trap), make links from policy to implementation, include stakeholders and community groups not just experts, include objectives greater than just military security and immediate relief, diffuse planning throughout local government systems and (above all) establish strong and appropriate leadership. In these situations the issues are complex and not just environmental. There are severe political and security related repercussions for which the present environmental problem is the catalyst. In Pakistan there are fears that flood victims may be forced to join the Taleban as a result of losing their means to survival. If the immediate and longer term needs of the community are not addressed, it will only add fuel to an already blazing fire. The integrated environmental management approach offers a hugh number of lessons and tools to overcoming the challenges of post-conflict and post-diaster planning. The body of literature in this specific field is still fairly limited and often separates short-term emergency relief efforts from longer-term development support. However, with an increasing frequency of severe weather events and no sign of world peace being declared anytime soon, addressing environmental issues should be high on the agenda for global security. I will continue to maintian a strong interest in this area and watch with interest and compassion as events unfold.