Every year in Africa when the rains are heavy or become storms, floods cause havoc in most areas in the continent. This results in damage to property, crops in the field and loss of life which then results in mental health risks for the survivors, especially the children. There is also the ever-present risk of waterborne disease outbreaks after the floods. Recently in Kenya over 120 people died and over 500,000 were displaced by relentless El Nino rains.
The damage caused by floods in Africa can be mitigated or their effects tempered, but first, we need to be disciplined.
Governments need to stop being reactionary and become proactive, this is where discipline checks in. The rains or flooding cycle is the same almost every year and, and hits the same regions year in year out for many decades except for the drought years. The flood disaster only occurred about 2 months ago in Kenya and currently, no one seems to be talking or preparing how to mitigate the next one.
The poor state of this related infrastructure contributes to the enhanced severity of the flood’s impact. Bridges not maintained will collapse during floods and rivers not managed will overflow during the same time, I could go on and on but I believe you get the drift now. The society in Africa needs to develop a Standard for Flood Disaster Preparedness, this will help inculcate the practice which will then evolve into a Culture for posterity. The first agenda of the Standard would be to improve the maintenance & repair standards and practice for the public infrastructure. This includes consistently scheduled maintenance and planned repairs, standards dictate who does what task, when and how. There is no room to neglect responsibilities. This is where society needs to develop high discipline, which will move them to map out the zones and develop Disaster Preparedness Standards, Procedures & Practices.
Standards globally will only be effective in any industry in an environment of high discipline. It dictates the method, skills, the person responsible and when the task is to be performed. It’s the year 2024 and technology that can help improve the operations exist, and can be integrated for usage in Disaster Preparedness.
FLOOD DISASTER PREPAREDNESS –STANDARDS & PRACTICE
The first pillar of a STANDARD is the related human skills set, it defines the type of qualifications and competency of the staff involved. Once the hr is sorted then stuff like Standard Operations Procedure starts taking shape.
A Standard for Flood Disaster Preparedness will dictate that every region have a Flood Operations Center, and with climate change now all over the world, common sense will dictate that all regions must have an F.O.C., weather patterns change so no region is safe anymore. Training and evaluation form a key subject in Standards implementation, the F.O.Cs will be the venue for all these. The F.O.C will be mandated with the implementation of the Standard. Its operations while guided by the Standard, can include stuff like below
- Collaboration with local, regional, and Government agencies to collect and share weather and river runoff data. There will be a Standard set to help determine the level of runoff that leads to evacuation advisory
- Activating of Flood Operations Center when flooding is imminent or occurring to coordinate response between local agencies and provide technical assistance as requested
- Holding preseason briefings for emergency responders to learn about resources and coordinate with other local agencies to prepare for flood season
- Organize meetings with flood emergency response partners and county emergency operation officials throughout the region
- Monitoring the status and condition of the related critical infrastructure assets, and escalating any maintenance or repair issues
- Maintenance of rivers and sensitization of the communities to help reduce dumping that causes blockages of rivers and stormwater drainage
- Collection and analysis of data
- Community training etc…
The implementation of the Flood Preparedness Standards will not eliminate the Floods, but will minimize its impact significantly, first, we need the discipline and learn to plan and implement stuff early. The local leaders need to be at the vanguard championing the development of the F.O.Cs in every region, it just needs discipline and focus. To help progress the implantation of this, it starts with you the reader to be responsible, mobilize and contact the local leaders and Government to push for its progress. It all starts with 1 then 2 then 3 then 5 then we will be 100 and then Thousands, at this point, they can no longer ignore us, but first we have to develop high discipline, and then the Standards will follow.
How BlueBox can help?
Bluebox provides services in Physical Assets Management in the continent and this includes Infrastructure Assets Management & Repairs. Our services help the clients to maximize the full life cycle usage of the assets, and helps reduce lose and damage. The main pillar or guiding star of Physical Assets management practice is the Standards, Procedures & Practice. Based on this experience, we will attempt to borrow from this practice and see how the same framework, can be developed to help mitigate flood disasters in Africa. Public Infrastructure in Africa are largely neglected and best poorly maintained and this leads to poor working or operations condition. These include bridges, roads, rivers (yes rivers are infrastructure too and have to be managed) culverts, man holes, storm water drainage etc.
By
Quicks Nyakwaka
CEO – BlueBox- A Ronalds LLP associate company
Fixed Assets & Inventory Management expert
