Disaster Management: Preparing for and Responding to Emergencies

Disasters management is the subject related to the management of the disasters that occur regularly at various moment of time because of natural calamities. Disaster management is that discipline of dealing with and avoiding risks. Disaster management deals with the planning coordinating and solving the ways, means and methods to control the disasters from making it harm to mankind. It can be done from individual level to the organisational level. Basically, it is related to the risk management. Disaster are not any regular thing or come with any time table, neither it gives an any alarm to the human kind. Moreover the disaster have more or less effect on human being. Disaster management has broad scope.

Disaster management needs good planning and coordination. It should be continuously rehearsed. Prior planning is most for the disaster management. Considering the possibilities of such an occurrence, the project proponent plans to develop and implement disaster management plan. This plan will focus on various types of disaster that arise from various sources and affect the population and livelihood of the people, in different region. The most frequent types of disasters that arise in the context of Nepal are landslide, flood, earthquake and various road accidents.

Disaster is not a simple term. It covers a wide area and may takes various shapes. Disaster are of two types: human made disaster which result from the human error and naturally occurring disaster such as earthquake and drought. Disaster cag

For the management of the disasters that arise frequently in various parts of our country, we have to be ready for the each and every contingency before only. Firstly, each and every aspects of the disaster should be structuralized and various parts of our countries should be categorised according to the chances of various kinds of disasters. For that, a good coordination with the government and the non governmental agencies or organizations, NGOs , INGOs is most. If any area of our country are in danger then we should already have catered some of the disaster management, Coordinated plan as well as. There must be sufficient amount of the. Management equipment’s and tools. For the management of the disaster disaster Management Committee or team should be allocated. The process or act of managing all kind of natural calamities and disaster which are either natural or manmade will require a Group or a team effort.

Disaster management plans also includes the disaster readiness call. Disaster readiness call plans for the minimization of effect or damage caused by disaster which includes:

• What will happen?
• What will the response be?
• What will be done ahead of time to prepare?

With this, the management of the proposed development will formulate an emergency committee. To address any of the, Immediate disaster in a quick, responsible and safe manner. The committee will be charged with task of, electing an emergency coordinator. And so shall be directing an executive, all the activities and outline plan concerning the management of the disaster. The government should facilitate all kind of the safety equipment’s devices in all the local levels so as to have quick response during all kind of natural calamities. Moreover, the people in the local levels districts and villages should also be trained for working as some kind of the quick response team. Disaster management can be categorised into 4 phases Prepadness, Response. Recovery. Mitigation.

1. Prepadness: Activities prior to a disaster. Example, preparedness plans, emergency exercises, warning systems.
2. Response: Activities during the disaster. Example, public warning 5systems, emergency operations, search and rescue
3. Recovery: Activities following during disaster. Examples. Temporary housing, Claims processing and grants. Long term medical care and Counselling.
4. Mitigation: Activities that reduces the effect of disaster. Example. Building quotes. Vulnerability, Analysis, public education.

The government play very important role in the disaster management of any country. They should have allocated a huge amount of budget in the country like ours. Here are some of the precautions that the government can do regarding the disaster management:

• Disaster management wings should be established by the governing body for working as a head executive of the disaster management teams.
• There should be huge amount of budget allocated from the government side for the disaster management.
• Different part of the country can be categorised according to the vulnerability and risk of various natural calami6and those budget should be distributed accordingly.
• Disaster management equipment should be in sufficient amount.
• Each and every ward and districts should have quick response team for any kind of disasters.
• The local people and the districts should organise a disaster management team giving them training with some allowance’s so people would be interested.
• Availables of damkals for fire fighting in each wards.
• Ambulances and evacuation vehicles for the casualties in every ward should be available looking the threat of the places from natural calamities.

There is also a role of different arms in disaster management. Various arm force of Nepal i.e. Nepal army, Nepal Police and Armed Police force plays an important roles in disaster management. The main roles of these arm force is to conduct rescue operation and evacuate the victim. Nepali army is playing the great role on search and rescue operation during the disaster such as flood, landslide and earthquake. Nepali army states the disaster management as the secondary role. As the primary role of Nepal army is to protect sovereignty of nation and protect the country from foreign invasion. Other than primary role, the secondary role also includes disaster management. Nepal army is not the first responder but a key responder to disaster management. Nepali army is playing an important role in disaster management. In massive earthquake in 2072 BS, Nepal army got deployed in every places to rescue the victims and also in various landslide and flood in terai .In addition to that some of the roles of armed force in various naturally occurring disaster are:

• Various awareness programmes should be conducted before the occurrence.
• Various training related to disaster management should be conducted in school, colleges and community.
• All the equipment required for the management should be well prepared for any time in need.
• All the arm force should organise a disaster management team giving them training
• All the arm force should be well trained for immediate response against the disaster.
• Preventive measures for reducing disaster like flood and land slide should ne practiced in the training.
• Arm forces should be setting up the temporary shelters that should provide a safe place to sleep, food and additional support from trained personnel
• Arm force should also assist other bodies in supply of food and clothing.
• Emergency health service and mobile hospital should be established with minor surgery facilities.
• Arm forces should assist in distributing emergency supplies and necessities such as shovels, picks, trash bags for cleaning and various basic needs.

In conclusion, the government should have coordinated plan and formulate accordingly to have quick response on the disaster management. It should be coordinated with the all arms forces and other agencies. There needs to be coordination between armed force and governmental bodies and civil organization in such field. Along with delivering help and intervention , the disaster management should focus in safe guarding health, protecting buildings, animals, and community property. Naturally occurring disaster cannot only be manage by single arms or single organization, coordination between all the arms, civil organization and government is must. Some of the disaster can be prevented too. Although earthquake cannot be reduced but flood and landslide can be reduced. So the organization should focus in reducing flood and landslide with applying preventive measures.