Over 30,000 people die from disaster annually

Over 30,000 people die from disaster annually

Etim Ekpimah

Over 30,000 people die annually from disasters while 15,000 uprooted and with more than 60,000 people affected worldwide.

The Director General, Lagos State Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Olufemi Oke-Osanyintolu said this on Wednesday to commemorate the International Day for Disaster Management.

Speaking on the theme: “Synergy, prevention, key to our success,” he said disasters have posed a major obstacle to achieving sustainable socio-economic development.

He added that over 50 per cent of displacement results from disasters like flooding and terrorism yearly.

This was contained in a statement signed by Head, Public Affairs, LASEMA, Nosa Okunbor, on Wednesday.

“The direct economic loss is estimated at billions of dollars, which sets back socio-economic development, especially in our nation.

“To save lives and reduce human suffering, state, national and international communities have been doing their best in disaster response, which is not only critical but necessary. However, disaster response alone is insufficient.

“The global empirical evidence, widespread consensus is that the severity and frequency of disasters are growing. As such, developing countries, including Nigeria are increasingly exposed, socially, economically and bio-physically to the change in weather patterns, inefficient land use practices, growing populations, most of whom find themselves exposed to various hazards due to their socio-economic status and assets located in high-risk areas, rapid and uncontrolled urbanization,” he said.

While expressing deep concerns about climate change and land degradation, he said they were expected to significantly affect the region and increase risks related to water resources, fire, agriculture and food security, including flood incident reports within the state, he also expressed belief that losses from floods that were exacerbated by catchments of clogged drains, which were choked during heavy rains due to refuse disposal in them, would increasing impact damage caused by disasters which might take away or limit the gains in economic development in the region.

He added that therefore, “our work in disaster risk management becomes critically important”, that the need for a community of practice for disaster risk reduction, to build statewide capacity and to collaborate and strengthen the efforts in practically reducing disaster risk creation through effective Disaster Risk Reduction reiterating the LASEMA experience which he emphasised had since its inception achieved disaster risk reduction through cooperation among various agents, such as states, international organizations, local governments, local civil society organizations, and citizens themselves.

He said, “In disaster reduction, LASEMA has been very active in four areas: 1) to increase public awareness of risks and existing solutions to reduce vulnerability to hazards, 2) obtain commitment by public authorities to reduce risk to people and their livelihoods, 3) to stimulate multidisciplinary and inter-sectoral partnerships and expand risk reduction networks, and 4) to further improve scientific knowledge of the causes of disasters and effects of natural hazards. Since 2016 till date the Agency has responded to 70,352,948 calls from the general public out of which 198,100 were escalated to several agencies; the incidents to which we respond vary from Accidents, Fires, Vehicle Breakdowns, Illness, Injuries and Collapsed buildings.”

Oke-Osanyintolu, however, said that working together was often the solution to disaster risk management, adding that LASEMA stands ready to support “Moving from commitment to Action”, adopting a proactive, holistic and comprehensive approach that enable’s it to mainstream disaster risk management “systematically into development undertakings”, applying forecasting, warning, local government diffusion, civil society participation and popular understanding and action, in the process develop awareness and build stronger disaster response teams through Simulation exercises.

According to the DG LASEMA, disaster preparedness are one way in which to act adequately to warnings, saying it’s important to understand why it is essential to act, as well as how to act. He cited the LASEMA experience, when he explained the importance of the action for both the community and those who respond as was demonstrated with the agency’s numerous collaborators, it’s recently established Local Emergency Management Committees, LEMCs, Zones, Units, the Marine Unit, Early Warning Systems and total success of all it’s operations.

Still on the agency’s success, the DG LASEMA juxtaposed data on the agency’s numerous rescue and recovery activities between January and September this year, with his technical narrative on the need for harmony amongst responders, to showcase it’s success rate, when he revealed that the Agency responded to 740 incidents in 9 months, that Truck/Tanker accidents ranked first with 236 incidents, road crashes as next with 191 incidents and 96 fire incidents, which major outbreaks were mostly attributed to leaky or vandalised oil pipelines as third, saying that all were successfully attended at diverse locations, in Abule Ado/Soba, Baruwa and Abule Egba axis of the state, due to collaboration and synergy of responders.

Other incidents recorded in data captured within the same period according to their various categories are; fallen containers 42, broken down truck 27, medical emergency 24, fallen truck tanker 21, building Collapse 17, Truck on fire 14, Impending Collapsed Building 8, Partially Collapsed Building 5, Gas Explosions 5, Leaky Pipelines 5, Capsized Boat 4, Attempted Suicide 4, Domestic Accident 3, Corona Virus 3, Pipeline Explosions 3, Collapsed Victim 3, Burning Vehicle 3, Floods 3 and Public Complaint 3.

More data show, Crushed Injury 3, Leaky Gas 2, Burns 2, Tanker Spillage 1, Illegal Renovation 1, Wind Storm 1, Communal Crash 1, Laceration 1, Oil Spillage 1, Sprained Ankle 1, Head Injury 1, Air Crash 1, Hospital Transfer 1 and Trauma 1, however, available monthly statistics reveal September as highest in number of incidents at 163, followed by August with 132 and July with 93 incidents. Others included 80 incidents in June, 73 in May, 62 in January, 56 in February, 46 in April, and the least of 35 incidents in the month of March, 2020.