Cost Coastal Crisis - Who Pays The Price - Coastnet The Edge Winter 2007

Who’s pays the price of coastal crises? Manuela de los Rios investigates Prices going up

How to minimise the costs

Ever visited the United Nations Relief website? Every single day wars, weatherrelated disasters, waterborne diseases, pollution and other crises, mostly in coastal areas, make the headlines. And climate change continues to exacerbate the problem with ever more frequent storms and sea level rise.

To minimise the costs of coastal crises, we need to (re)construct healthy coastal ecosystems so that there is built-in resilience to both human and naturallyinduced change. The Resilience Alliance suggests three abilities are required to do this:

Learning Life goes on but change happens and will continue to do so, especially on our coasts. One out of four people live within 100 km of the coast. Because we work and live on the coast we are subject to the risks that exist in these much appreciated, but naturally dynamic and exposed areas.

Imagine... WAR in Lebanon: Amir, hotel owner, 54, loses his clients HURRICANE in New Oreleans: Julie, 27, loses her mother EROSION in UK: Phillip, 72, loses his home FLOODS in Kenya: Chuku, 14, student, loses access to drinking water OIL SPILL in Spain: Gonzalo, 52, fisherman, loses his job TSUNAMI in Sri Lanka: Sajitha, 12, loses her school

Could it be me paying? We are all vulnerable to coastal hazards; factors related to institutional capacity, technology and infrastructures are one side of the coin. On the other side, social and economic characteristics such as health, education, networks, age and gender can determine those who are most susceptible and less able to cope and recover from an event.

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The edge Winter 2007

Local knowledge and experience as well as access to information is essential to deal with coastal crises. In 1992, Hurricane Andrew in Florida caused 23 people to lose their lives with economic losses estimated at $26.5 billion. An equivalent tropical typhoon in Bangladesh caused 100,000 deaths and the displacement of millions. Florida’s institutional capacity, early warning systems, community experience and strong networks had been improved by learning through recent experiences while social vulnerability in Bangladesh turned the disaster into an unmanageable scale and devastation.

Buffering Natural barriers made little difference to the impact of the tsunami wave at its epicentre when it hit the Indonesian shoreline in 2004. But further away, in Sri Lanka the energy of smaller waves was reduced by natural barriers in the shape of extensive vegetation and mangroves. These barriers reduced human and property losses. Enhance the ability and capacity of natural resources, such as coral reefs, to recover from severe events and we could build ecosystem resilience and safeguard the livelihoods of fisherfolk.

the Spanish coast in 2002 demonstrates why this is important. The oil spill represented the largest environmental disaster in Spain’s history polluting thousands of kilometres of coastline. Widescale concern from the public led to thousands of volunteers turning up at beaches to help with the clean up operation only to find that tools and accommodation were not available for all. This inability for quick and effective adaptation on the part of institutions, combined with the public’s good willed, but disorganised appearance illustrates the need for a more organised, structured society.

We pay, we say – sharing responsibility For those most directly-affected, (communities, households and individuals), a far greater dialogue should be undertaken with all available actions clearly discussed so that they can make decisions and understand consequences through informed thought, eg deciding to live in a flood risk area. If there is something the ICM community all agree on, it is the need to understand the human role in creating vulnerability to evaluate risk.

Differences of power, wealth and geography pose the greatest threat to our survival and well- being. We need a new vision to redefine coastal development and policies but we must speak the same language, share recognition of threats and work towards consensus as all nations and regions share responsibility regarding mitigation, adaptation and resilience in coastal areas. Otherwise we could all be paying the price of Getting organised Active civil networks together with good mismanaged coastal crises. governance systems make it easier for Manuela de los Rios is CoastNet’s new institutions to adapt rapidly when it Information and Communications comes to managing crisis situations. The Manager. Contact her at: response to the sinking of the Prestige oil [email protected] tanker and the subsequent oil spill off