Japanese expert for collaborations to reduce disaster risk

Islamabad : Declaring disaster risk reduction not only the basis for development but also necessary for the protection of the people’s life, property, and livelihoods, Japanese expert Dr. Kozo Nagami has insisted that collaboration among diverse actors is an effective way to minimise the socioeconomic impact of calamities and emergencies in developing countries.

He said JICA, the executing agency of Japan’s official development assistance, was helping developing countries, including Pakistan, expand DRR investment and substantially reduce the number of deaths, victims, and economic losses by natural hazards by 2030.

Dr. Nagami, director for the JICA Disaster Risk Reduction Group, told a webinar that it was important to reduce disaster risks to prevent damage to public life and property as well as livelihoods.

He said the primary cause of disasters was natural hazards but it was a challenge to predict their timing and magnitude with precision.

“The primary cause of disasters is natural hazards but it is a challenge to predict their timing and magnitude with precision. Sometimes natural phenomena catch us unprepared. However, this does not mean that we should just be reactive to every disaster. There are things that we can do in advance to understand and reduce risk based on scientific knowledge and to minimise the impact of disasters. DRR can also protect economically and socially vulnerable populations against the risk of falling into the negative spiral of poverty as a result of disasters,” he said.

The JICA director said DRR was not a cost and instead, it was an investment as $1 for pre-disaster investment reduced the cost of reconstruction by $15 and $1 for enhancing the resilience of infrastructure reduces the cost of reconstruction by $4.

He said the amount of economic damage caused by disasters showed a large increase compared with deaths and victims.

“Prone to disasters, Japan has achieved economic growth while confronting natural hazards, based on the belief that the same damage should not be repeated. Japan’s principles of DRR is reflected on the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction, which positions DRR as a development issue that forms the basis for economic and social development - and not as a response-oriented humanitarian issue. Japan will continue to lead the world in the field of DRR through top-class public and private human resources,” he said.

Dr Nagami said there were plans to increase by 2030 the international cooperation to developing countries for the implementation of the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction and the availability of and access to early warning systems and disaster risk information, while disaster mortality, the number of disaster-hit people, disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services, including health and educational facilities and direct disaster economic loss, would be reduced by that year.

He said disaster risk was increasing in developing countries due to unregulated urban development with inadequate risk reduction, so the governments should invest in proactive DRR to fundamentally reduce that risk.

The JICA director said his organisation, in order to help Pakistan's Met Office improve meteorological observations, upgraded weather radars in Islamabad and Karachi and would install new dual polarisation weather radar in Multan and Sukkar.

“These grant aid projects will help mitigate damage caused by natural disasters such as floods and landslides in the country as well as ensure human security,” he said.