Empowering communities to address disasters
For the past nine months Ethiopian Red Cross Society (ERCS), supported by the Canadian Red Cross (CRC), have been engaged in helping communities react to natural and man-made disasters by utilizing their own local capacities. The pilot initiative, called Community Based Disaster Reduction Management (CBDRM), is being implemented in three zones namely North Wollo, West Arsi and Gurage. The project aims to prevent disasters from occurring, minimize their effects, as well as ensure that swift and adequate responses are provided to affected communities when disasters do take place.
One of the most disaster prone areas in Amhara region, Qobo Woreda, North Wollo, was among the sites selected to implement the CBDRM initiative. For several years the community in Qobo have been severely affected by flooding, which has impacted livelihoods and destroyed many homes of the residents there.
A farmer and father of six children, Ato Temesgen Belay, lives in Qobo Woreda. Temesgen explained the severity of the damage caused by reoccurring flooding, stating “There are residents that have already left the area due to their land being almost eroded and there are others whose house is on the verge of being taken away by the erosion caused by flooding. They are still there facing the risk because there is no place to resettle them.”
According to agricultural experts in the area, flooding previously completely destroyed 60 out of the total 250 hectares of irrigation land in the Woreda. Ato Temesgen and other members of the community are now trying to prevent similar disasters in the future by implementing solutions to mitigate risks. The community have been building terraces to prevent heavy rainfall from flooding and destroying houses, and trees are being grown to prevent erosion and landslides. So far 3,700 seedlings have already been planted in the area.
“We really need help to stop the damage and protect the land before everything is ruined or damaged to a stage that it is impossible to reverse”, said Temesgen. “I will not stop trying to mobilize resources, contribute physically and work with the community and the government.”
Based on the CBDRM concept and related technical support initially provided by the Red Cross, all of the activities are being implemented through the mobilization of local resources; including financial contributions, physical labour, and the donation of construction materials and grain stocks.
“ERCS use this community based disaster management approach as a strategy to improve the cycle time of delivering help for disaster related risks by localising capacity to the community and allocating resources to respond nearer to them.” said Abraham Tesfaye, ERCS Program Coordinator for Strengthening Emergency Response in Africa (SERA) project. “We can conclude that the project is feasible and could be duplicated in other areas from what has been done so far in Qobo and in the other places.”
The CBDRM initiative aims to strengthen the capacity and resilience of communities and ensure sustainability through local ownership and communal responsibility. Based on the learnings and successes of the initial pilot program, ERCS plans to rollout CBDRM across additional disaster-prone areas in Ethiopia.