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Not really my area of expertise either ..others ? Note again the excellent assessment material produced by ACAPS…
Not really my area of expertise either ..others ? Note again the excellent assessment material produced by ACAPS…
Not really my area of expertise either ..others ? Note again the excellent assessment material produced by ACAPS…
Yes, there were lots of interesting lessons which came out of this. A few things immediately come to mind:
– It developed over the Christmas/New Year period (a bit like the 2004 indian Ocean tsunami), and it was important to key stakeholders to not delay. NEMO (and the Director is the key person here) prepared a request for assistance quickly; the NZ High commission responded quickly talking with both wellington and GNS Science; the Tongan Geological Dept did a great job is hosting the GNS team, getting them out to the developing volcano
– you’re right that this hazard was ‘nipped in the bud’ before it developed into something potentially more difficult (although fortunately it did die down of its own accord). Acting proactively was also the success of the wye River fires (Mod 2.3.), where immediate action sustained over a number of days prevented a tragedy taking placeA couple of points here in response to Michael’s & Catherine’s comments.
1. There is always the challenge of stakeholders committing themselves to preparation work in the Normal/DRR Stage, where others priorities and inertia can set in. Also this current period (May-Oct) is an ideal time to prepare for tropical cyclones and drought (as they’re out of season). Interestingly I’ve received recent info that some (well at least one !) of the Tongan clusters is currently meeting…they’ve also picked up the point they also need to prepare for floods rather than just cyclones, drought, earthquake/tsunami, volcanos etc
2. The ideal is for Clusters to be Gov.Dept (rather than UN) led, and I sense this is now happening across the Pacific
3. Rapid communications re-establishment is a key factor following a major disaster such as a tropical cyclone (which may damage the telecommunications infrastructure…something which may require some time to fix). When I was in Vanuatu, it was recognised that ideally agencies should also keep their Contacts lists up to date with stakeholders who use R/T…agencies/organisations such as airport/port operators; provincial government authorities; tourism hubs; well resourced churches such as Latter day saints (LDS) etcHi Michael (and others), you will note in Mod 2.8.. we cover assessments, and particularly the really useful information on this produced by ACAPS. I will separately, by email, link you in to our TorqAid Advisory Team (TAT) health expert, dr Rowena Christiansen, who teaches at Melbourne University…you may want to link in to her, particularly with regards your conference coming up in January
Catharine’s organisation (FAO) works is a key supporting member of the Vanuatu Food Security and Agriculture Cluster, which is headed up by the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry, Fishing & Biosecurity (MALFFB). A brief comment on how this cluster works in practice would be interesting, Catharine…
Catharine’s comments are very astute. You might want to note that she works for FAO, and therefore has a good grasp of food security issues. Her comments also reflect those made on Topic 2.1. which relate to the challenges of the slow-onset DRMC (caused by el-Nino related drought).
Hi Catharine, Apologies for the delay in answering this..I was actually thinking of the following:
– Safety/security
– Housing
– Health
– WASH
– Food
– Education
– livelihoods
– HopeInitiatives such as coordination, communications and logistics make all these things happen. .
Have just realised this was a bit of an open-ended question, so probably not ideal for this context.
Hi Catharine, Apologies for the delay in answering this..I was actually thinking of the following:
– Safety/security
– Housing
– Health
– WASH
– Food
– Education
– livelihoods
– HopeInitiatives such as coordination, communications and logistics make all these things happen. .
Have just realised this was a bit of an open-ended question, so probably not ideal for this context.
