Is the Pacific doing enough in its disaster early warning systems?

By Daniel Namosuaia, Solomon Star: http://www.solomonstarnews.com

11 July, 2013, Nadi, Fiji - A lot of progress has been made in the Pacific in the area of early warning systems (EWS), however more needs to be done, says Rajendra Prasad, the UNESCO/IOC Programme Officer for DRR and Tsunami Warning.

Prasad says countries in the Pacific do vary on their level of EWS, but says the progress and developments done within the region has been going reasonably well.

“there are several natural hazards such as tropical cyclones, flash floods, droughts and tsunami which each country’s state of EWS differs. But for us in Fiji, we have reasonably good early warning systems for tropical cyclones,” Prasad said.

Although there were some weaknesses such as incidences of over warnings, under warnings, late warnings or too early warnings, Prasad said it has been a real challenge for the Pacific with hazards like tsunami where information could reach the public through the media without proper assessment and causes panic and anxiety amongst people.

He stressed that for different hazards, different countries have their own EWS situation, some are well prepared more than others.

He highlighted that Solomon Islands is one of the countries that has one of the best EWS practices in place where the integration of the Meteorological services and National Disaster Management Office could respond in the earliest time to its EWS.

Prasad further highlighted that the Pacific has a long way to go in addressing certain hazards like that of tsunami, while with others like tropical cyclones, they are well equipped and have in place proper EWS.

However he said there is certainly a need for improvement to ensure EWS are in place to counter any type of hazards.

“We have a lot of way to go in terms of improvements on EWS but the good part is the Pacific Early Warning Centre will in the near future cease to issue warnings and people can get that quickly from their national met services and integrate that information with the national disaster divisions to organise the respond to EWS.”

He stressed that despite the challenges Pacific island countries face with the resources they have available, they have done a lot and this should be maintained and improved.

When asked on how prepared the Pacific is in terms of its EWS for natural hazards, Prasad said it depends entirely on the type of hazards.

He said if he is going to rank the pacific on scale of one to ten with ten being the highest, the Pacific would sit between 6 and 7.

However he said for tropical cyclones he would rank the pacific between 8 and 9. For flash floods he ranked it between 5-6 depending on the locality of the area and for tsunami, he ranked it below 5.

“This integration process (between climate change and disaster management) is like we are planting a seed and surely it will germinate and mature and bear fruit. Once it starts to grow, we will just have to look after it and by the end of the day it will enable us to tackle multi-hazards when it comes.”

American Samoa to avoid fish extinction

By Asenati Taugasolo Semu, Press Secretariat of the Government of Samoa: http://www.savalinews.com

9 July 2013, Nadi, Fiji - Coral bleaching and fish extinction are some of the issues on American Samoa’s agenda.

This was revealed by American Samoa’s Head of the National Meteorology Services, Leilua Mase Akapo in an interview today.

“Global warming has caused widespread coral bleaching in the territory,” he said.

Many villages in American Samoa, according to Leilua, are involved in marine biodiversity conservation projects that prohibit fishing in selected areas for a period of two years.

 

“These are efforts by our government and the community to preserve and replenish the coral reefs and avoid fish extinction in the future.

“There have been some very positive outcomes with these projects and the villages are very happy with it.”

He said they have a coral monitoring conservation strategy put in place to save their coral reefs.

Leilua is a representative of the territory at the Joint Meeting of the 2013 Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management & Pacific Climate Change Roundtable in Fiji this week.

 

“I’m beginning to see the many positive aspects of this meeting that could benefit American Samoa like other Pacific countries,” said Leilua.

 

“Many of our people in the territory do not understand about the many issues that are being discussed at these regional meetings.

“I’m interested in the process of the roadmap discussed this week and I will see if there is anything in there that could benefit our territory. I will return to American Samoa and give an update of the meeting to see if we can fit into any of these processes.”

Leilua was referring to the integrated strategy process that combines functions of the Disaster Risk Management and Climate Change.

Leilua said he was fortunate to be here because many people in American Samoa do not understand what goes on in these meetings.

Missing beach in Majuro restores passion for the islands

By Bill Jaynes, The Kaselehlie Press: http://www.kpress.info/

 

9 July 2013, Nadi, Fiji - Canita Rilometo Swigert, a trainer on disaster risk management with the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Pohnpei and the Marshall Islands is attending the Joint meeting of the 2013 Pacific Platform for Disaster Risk Management and Pacific Climate Change Roundtable. It is her first time to have attended a Pacific Climate Change event and she excitedly talks about all the people she is meeting, the connections she is making, and all that she is learning that she can take back home with her.

Just over two years ago she rediscovered a passion for the islands and her people that she had long forgotten that she had. Before she went to work for the International Organization for Migration (IOM)in 2011 CanitaRilometoSwigert held several jobs including a 20 year stint in the U.S. Army.

She says that when she was younger she was passionate about the environment and about island issues but when she left the Marshall Islands the pressures of everyday living superceded.

“My friends used to laugh at me,” she said, “because whenever we walked to school I always picked up trash on the beach. Whenever I had a backpack you could be sure there would be trash in it.”

She also started a youth group in Majuro. One of the many responsibilities the youth group took on was to cleanup trash from a beach near the airport. 20 years later it was that beach that brought her passion for the islands and its people back.

“When I first went to work for IOM I was just worried about learning what I needed to teach,” she said. “I said to myself, ‘I was in the Army. I can do this job’” but then IOM sent her to Majuro to teach ninth graders there. While there, she went to visit what she had come to think of as her beach. “When I saw what I saw there it changed everything for me,” she exclaimed. “It wasn’t there. The beach was gone. We cleaned that beach and we planted trees there but it’s gone,” she lamented.

It was an epiphany for her.

Candida is a trainer for CADRE, which is an acronym for Climate Adaptation, Disaster Risk Reduction, and Education. CADRE is an information campaign to raise awareness in FSM and RMI communities of the risks of natural disasters and climate change and also to help communities to develop disaster risk plans.

Canita is responsible for working alongside school teachers to teach a series of 12 lesson plans to eighth graders in selected schools in Pohnpei and to 9^th graders in selected schools in the RMI. So far, over 1400 children have taken the course on Climate Change Adaptation, and Disaster Risk Reduction.

She also assists in conducting community based hazard risk assessments in selected communities

Disaster risk assessment teams go into communities and conduct risk assessments. They then work with the community to help them come up with their own adaptation measures and emergency plans. So far 13 communities have completed community based, participatory Hazard Vulnerability Capacity Mapping exercises. They have also developed local early action plans on how to increase community resilience.

What the IOM CADRE Program won’t do is to swoop in and directly implement the actions plans. That will be the responsibility of the communities themselves. They will, however, provide support to 20 communities to implement the community-based local early action plans.

Canita works only in Pohnpei and RMI but the CADRE program is also in operation in Kosrae, Chuuk, and Yap. Australian AID provided 100 percent of the funding for the three year program which is scheduled to conclude in 2015.

Canita says that she hopes that governments in both countries will want to continue the program when it ends. She said that she has had a few conversations along those lines with people in high places that she finds encouraging and she will continue to advocate for it.

Canita has also involved herself in community issues that have nothing to do with her job but everything to do with who she is and the passion that was restored to her because of a missing beach in Majuro.