VIVAnews - Chief of UN Humanitarian Affairs Department and coordinator of Disaster Mitigation, John Holmes, praises Indonesia for having a great coordination in disaster mitigation although establishing one in such difficult time is not easy.
“For the West Sumatran earthquake, the assistance has reached every location. Congratulations for the well-established coordination,” Holmes said.
The UN has disbursed US$ 38 million to help the government nursing survivors of the earthquake which rocked West Sumatra on September 30 and killed at least 1100 people.
“We’ll keep the emergency responses going for two or three months and later focusing on rehabilitation and rescue,” he said.
Holmes also reminded South East Asian countries to provide disaster anticipation facilities since Asian regions are prone to natural disaster.
“What these countries mostly need is focusing on pre-disaster actions [such as] the preparation, responses and prevention to eliminate numbers of victims and damages,” Holmes, who visited quake-hit areas in Padang and several remote areas in West Sumatra on Wednesday and Thursday, said.
According to Holmes, 70 percent of natural disaster occurred in the regions. Therefore, the humanitarian affairs division would again focus on procuring resources through UNDP and other mechanisms to assure the establishment of prevention, preparation and responses toward the disaster.
“Whatever development and construction we’re doing, building a disaster deterrent is not something that we could buy. It must be built from the inside,” the former British Ambassador to France, said.
Holmes also said the amount of UN’s global humanitarian budget to hold responses against disaster is about US$ 12 million per year with a fluctuating sum.
“It’s the government who would invest for humanitarian fund, 10 percent of the investment’s value will be put into disaster risks mitigation budget. It’ll be a great investment, “he said.
Based on the fact that various natural disasters such as the recent hurricane in Philippines were caused by the climate change, not only did the meeting in Copenhagen last December focus on emission reduction and disaster management, it also discussed about adapting to the disasters and assisting developing countries adjusting to the impacts of climate change. “Disaster risks elimination was one of the topics of discussion,” Holmes said.
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Translated by: Nataya Ermanti
