Typhoon Rammasun puts Philippine disaster preparedness to the test

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
Preparations for typhoon Rammasun are under way in the Philippines. Here, a resident of Las Pinas city, south of Manila, reinforces his roof. Photograph: EPAIn June 2013, at the beginning of the rainy season, the Philippine interior secretary announced that the government was aiming for a casualty-free typhoon season. Just five months later, the country was devastated by the deadliest storm in its history.
While the island state struggles to repair the damage wreaked by typhoon Haiyan, which killed more than 6,000 people, preparations have long been under way for the next season. The Philippine meteorological agency, Pagasa, recently announced the beginning of this year's rainy season and warned that 18 typhoons could hit the country by the end of December.
For the country's Climate Change Commission, discussions on how to prepare for the forthcoming year began nearly 12 months in advance. "Both national and local governments are bracing themselves. Typhoon Haiyan was such an enormous event," said the commission's vice-chairman and executive director, Lucile Sering.
The government also started preparing for the typhoon season early, and admitted to learning important lessons from Haiyan, or Yolanda as it is known in the Philippines. "We have learned a lot from typhoon Yolanda. Our prepositioned goods before were not enough, numbering about 20,000 to 30,000 food packs. We are now preparing at least 50,000 food packs," said Corazon Soliman, secretary for social welfare and development.
The arrival this week of typhoon Rammasun, the fiercest storm to threaten the Philippines since Haiyan, is poised to be the first real test of the country's disaster preparedness. The typhoon left at least 10 people dead and knocked out power in many areas on Wednesday but Manila was largely spared the typhoon's 150kph (93mph) wind.
Evacuations began in earnest – ferry services were suspended and schools closed in parts of Luzon island as the category-one storm headed towards the Philppine capital. On a storm scale of one to five, five is the most severe. Haiyan was a category-five "super-typhoon".
With each major storm that hits the Philippines, the majority of funding is usually focused on the relief effort, with not much cash left over to prepare for any future disasters. But non-governmental agencies say this approach is changing.
"Historically, there has been less support for response and intervention, education and child protection because many of the contributions and donations initially go to water, sanitation and health, as far as Unicef is concerned," said Nonoy Fajardo, a Unicef Philippines disaster risk-reduction expert. "For the first time, donor agencies are now more open to support emergency preparedness unlike before when the emphasis was more on emergency response."
Many Haiyan victims died because they failed to evacuate. A large number of people remained in their houses because they were not fully informed on the strength of the incoming typhoon and the consequences of a storm surge.
"No matter how good the system or capability of the government, at the end of the day, it's our people who are exposed to the weather and they have to know," said Alexander Pama, chief undersecretary of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).
As a result, a large component of preparation this year has been angled towards education. Training workshops are being offered to every level, from residents to first responders to local government officials. However, with experts warning of stronger typhoons to come, training sessions have had to take on a new element this year, educating people of the "new norms" that the Philippines can expect to experience as climate change causes typhoons to intensify.
"The first thing people need to be educated about is climate change. Filipinos are not new to typhoons, however, what they knew then may not be appropriate to things that are happening right now," Pama said.
Unicef Philippines has a programme on disaster-risk reduction, which recently included climate change adaptation. "This is the first time this part has been established," Fajardo said.
Funding has also poured into data collection. "One of the lessons learned is that the government [local and national] has to gather more data on hazard and risks and then strive to make everyone aware of it," said Roderic Salve, disaster management services manager at the Red Cross.
Project Noah (Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards) was set up in 2012 as a monitoring and early warning system. It has collated a series of interactive maps, which show the different areas of vulnerability from natural disasters such as typhoons. It is thus able to anticipate the impact of a hazard in a locality and implement the appropriate preparedness.
The NDRRMC is building a new operations centre, which is likely to be a "game-changer", according to Pama. The new 600sq m nerve centre will improve coordination between the different agencies, using satellite communications with real-time video, voice and data transmission.
The whole project, which will be funded mainly by local and international donors, is expected to cost P250-300m (£3.4-4m) and will be ready in time for next year's rainy season in April.
This year, a major focus has been on the consolidation of different government agency responses during a disaster. "Response differs between people so we need one standardised response," Sering said.
The government has introduced a system called Pre-Disaster Risk Assessment under which disasters are approached in three to four thematic areas: prevention and mitigation; preparedness; response and recovery; and rehabilitation. Each area has a different cluster of agencies acting on the issues, and representatives from each area meet regularly to ensure cohesion.
"The way a typhoon is being looked at this year is different," Pama said. "We are approaching this in a tactical way. Before, everyone looked at it with their respective mandate. There needs to be more emphasis on the right hand knowing what the left hand is doing. We're consolidating the different government groups."

View the original article here

Rana Plaza disaster: call for UK retailers about compensation fund press

Aerial view of the construction site of Rana Plaza, after it in April 2013, crashed in the deaths of more than 1.100. Photo: Munir Uz Zaman/AFP/Getty Images

The TUC calls for the British Government ramp pressure on dealers who produce clothes in Bangladesh to help reduce a relief fund for the victims of the Rana Plaza, the factory.
Next week a high-level international meeting of the Organization for economic cooperation and development (OECD) in Paris, will discuss Rana Plaza after the disaster in which more than 1,100 people died and many others were injured.
More than a year after the factory building reduced, nearly 17 million $ (£10 m), been killed paid into a compensation fund supported by the International Labour Organisation well behind the $40 m, that which it is aimed, increase to support injured and the families of those.
Primark donated by far the largest share of these resources while other companies have a presence in Rana Plaza, including Chilean Britain and Italy Benetton admitted, managed to make every contribution.
Frances O'Grady, General Secretary of the TUC is the International Development Secretary, Justine greening, calls use the meeting to pressure written on British companies sourcing from Bangladesh, the funds to pay.
"Families that strongly, be affected by this disaster without the income or medical payments, which they deserve and need, for their lives to rebuild," she wrote.
The majority of the victims claims should be processed in the next few weeks. O'Grady, said it would be impossible to cover their payments over the first installment, if not more money.
The Government could not confirm whether greening or Alan Duncan, the Minister of State for the Department for international development (DfiD), which would attend OECD Paris.
However a spokesman for DfiD, the Summit to the underline the need for companies to use a "serious contribution" to the compensation fund.
"British companies have to stop and wonder if they do everything they can." They have the power to bring about profound and positive change, and we will continue every opportunity to encourage them, to this Act", he said.

View the original article here

Bangladesh social workers lobby for better labour rights in wake of Rana Plaza disaster

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
A relative mourns at the site of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh. Photograph: Xinhua/Landov/Barcroft Media
Last April, 27-year-old Mushamat Begum was at her sewing machine on the fifth floor of the Rana Plaza building when it collapsed in Bangladesh. More than 1,100 of her co-workers were killed, and she was later pulled from the rubble with a leg injury.
Speaking about the factory's condition before the collapse, she said: "Our working conditions are horrible. We basically never get a day off. If there's a death in the family, the bosses say, 'Well, there's nothing anyone can do about that. If someone's dead, he's dead'.
"We only get money if we're at the factory. There's no paid vacation. There are always people watching over us. They scold us when we have to go to the bathroom. They're there all the time and we're not allowed to take any breaks. Now and then they'll slap one of us."
Begum's experience is a direct consequence of living without national social protection systems and legally binding worker rights, within the context of an international trade system based on inequality and exploitation.
After the collapse of the Rana Plaza building, I spoke to Repon Chowdhury, general secretary of the Bangladesh Association of Social Workers. I asked him what was the core role of social work in a country of extreme poverty where workers are systemically exploited by higher income countries because of Bangladesh's cheap labour.
He explained that the struggle to improve labour rights and conditions is at the heart of social work practice in Bangladesh. "Social workers are a very important advocate for the fundamental rights of workers, and for the development of social protection systems on a daily basis," he said. "We do what we can to reduce child labour, creating safer conditions in the workplace and promoting gender equity and healthy environments for living."
However, he added that "without adequate labour rights enforced at the global level there will be continued poverty, human indignity and sufferings at workplaces".
Establishing agreed international labour rights is a key issue for eliminating poverty in Bangladesh and elsewhere. Repon explained that many people inside Bangladesh fear that, if their country advances labour laws in isolation, and in the absence of enforced international standards, the result could be the loss of jobs and export earnings that could significantly increase poverty. This would lead to wide-scale forced migration and social unrest. Instead, the answers lie in "international solidarity and promoting core labour standards and the elimination of poverty on a global scale".
The accord on fire and building safety in Bangladesh, which 150 international companies have signed up to, has been hailed as a potential solution. But Repon said it simply offers "baby steps" towards regulation.
"It has to be recognised that, apart from the failures of the companies, the Bangladeshi state also lacks the structures to enforce workplace safety," he said. "There should be detailed plans to improve workplace conditions by providing adequate resources and employing expert staff. Social workers would like to see the government taking a central role in ensuring the safety of workers."
While fire and building safety are the critical issues in Bangladesh, they are not the only health and safety problems in the workplace. Workers also face a range of occupational health matters that include respiratory ailments due to dust, and musculo-skeletal disorders due to long working hours and physically awkward conditions. "The time has come to create a universal social protection floor for all workers around the globe," says Repon.
Mushamat Begum was employed at the Rana Centre on a base full-time wage of 4,000 taka (about €39) a month. The rent for the one room that houses herself, her husband and two children is 1,850 taka (€18) a month. Her children sleep on the floor and her family shares a kitchen and toilet with seven other families. Her husband drives a rickshaw and earns very little.
Even if the Bangladesh accord could be implemented in the remaining four-year time frame, it won't stop Begum from being worked to death by the age of 60. It will not stop her children from getting waterborne diseases, such as hepatitis and typhoid fever, because of inadequate systems to ensure clean water.
The most realistic option that will enable her, and the billions of others like her, to find a decent future is to implement worldwide agreements that establish international labour laws. These would put workers and governments on an equitable footing and give them the chance to establish adequate social protection.
International regulation based on social justice is not prevented by a lack of resources, or by complexity of administration: its negotiation, development and phased implementation is a question of political resolve from governments and world leaders.
The consequences of not introducing such measures condemn more than half the world's population to the conditions experienced by Begum. Social work in Bangladesh, like in all countries, is about the transformation of society to enable people to live sustainably, and in dignity.
The International Federation of Social Workers
has joined forces with 90 other international NGOs in calling for social protection to be included in the post-2015 development goals.
Why not join our social care community? Becoming a member of the Guardian Social Care Network means you get sent weekly email updates on policy and best practice in the sector, as well as exclusive offers. Sign up – for free – online here.

View the original article here

Erdoan's self-defence over Soma's mining disaster was badly misjudged | Alev Scott

AppId is over the quota
AppId is over the quota
The Turkish prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, visits the coal mine in Soma. Photograph: Kayhan Ozer/AP

In the devastated Turkish town of Soma yesterday, a crowd of angry mourners mobbed the prime minister's convoy as it drove slowly through the streets. Boos and jeers threatened to drown out Recep Tayyip Erdogan's words as he addressed the families of those who died in the blast. When he attempted – briefly – to walk among the crowds, their hostile reaction forced his anxious bodyguards to hustle him into a nearby supermarket, where he became embroiled in a scuffle. This was a far cry from the welcoming flowers, smiles and cheers that Erdogan usually receives on official visits.

The prime minister has badly misjudged the Soma disaster by delivering an insensitive speech bristling with self-defence. Telling the relatives of dead and dying miners that "these types of incidents are ordinary things" was his way of deflecting any kind of responsibility for the blast in the wake of reports that the government ignored safety concerns about the privately owned mine, which were raised as recently as two weeks ago by opposition MPs.

The anger was echoed in cities across Turkey as thousands of people with coal-smeared faces took to the streets, carrying placards that read: "Soma was not an accident, it was a massacre." They called for the resignation of the energy minister, Taner Yildiz, and of Erdogan himself.

There is anger at a blase attitude to worker safety that prevails nationwide, and a strong sense that this blast in particular could have been prevented. Twitter has yet again proved itself to be Erdogan's bete noir by facilitating the spread of several damning photographs relating to the government's response to Soma, pre- and post-blast. One of these shows an opposition minister speaking in parliament on 29 April, brandishing a miner's hard hat and warning of poor conditions in the mine, as two AKP ministers chat among themselves in the background. Another, taken yesterday, shows the prime minister's adviser Yusuf Yerkel appearing to enthusiastically kick a protester in Soma who was on the ground, already overpowered by a couple of gendarmes.

The government and its media mouthpieces have jumped into self-defence mode, and Erdogan's speech was typical of the belligerence that marks his response to any kind of criticism. Yesterday, he chose to recount a long list of mining disasters which have occurred abroad, stretching back to a British disaster in 1862 and lingering on accidents which have occurred in America, "which has every kind of technology". His advisers seemed to have spent precious hours researching foreign mining history instead of coming up with a detailed course of action to assure the public of Erdogan's commitment to finding those both directly and indirectly responsible for the blast.

To many people, the insensitive tone of this speech and the irrelevance of much of its content needs no spelling out. However, when I spoke to an AKP supporter this morning about it, he was keen to explain the speech to me in its best possible light. Erdogan expressed deep sorrow, he pointed out. It was quite right to remind the public of similar disasters – what fault was there in that?

The instinctively protective reaction of this AKP supporter explains, in a nutshell, why Erdogan will survive what in most countries would be a serious PR disaster. He has survived more personally targeted attacks in the past six months, and his prickly self-defence is unlikely to fail him now, when he enjoys the fanatic support of almost half the population. He is rattled, however, and the protests yesterday had a raw anger that was missing from recent, more political protests. Soma is now the biggest mining disaster in Turkey's history, and people want answers.

View the original article here