Disaster Standards Needed in Asia | Brookings Institution
8/22/12 1:48 PM
SERIES: Brookings Northeast Asia Commentary | Number 20 of 60
Opinion | June 2008
Disaster Standards Needed in Asia The growing number and severity of natural disasters, especially in Asia, make it timely for governments to take a hard look at how to improve their national response. Just as there are scales for measuring the intensity of earthquakes and other disasters so should there be performance standards for measuring how governments respond. Without them, states are prone to improvise with little or no attention to the steps that might best address or mitigate disasters. Regional and international organizations may find themselves with limited or no entry and survivors have no accepted monitoring tool by which to hold their governments accountable. The recent earthquake in China, the cyclone in Burma, and the slow onset famine in North Korea have all brought to the fore the absence of agreed upon standards in Asia for dealing with these crises. China has received much praise for its reaction to the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan province, in which more than 80,000 people perished. UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon complimented its government for “extraordinary leadership” and “strenuous efforts.” To his credit, Prime Minster Wen Jiabao rushed to the scene, coordinated rescue operations and mobilized more than 100,000 troops and volunteers. The government also allowed a vigorous flow of information about the damage rather than seeking to hide the disaster as it had done in the past. But there was more to the story than that. Because schools for ordinary students were not built with the same high quality materials that were used for schools for children of the elite and for government buildings, 7,000 of the schools with students from the lower classes collapsed and an estimated 10,000 students and teachers died. Disaster preparedness did not seem to apply to the children of migrant workers and poor families. As the Chinese parent of one dead child commented, “this is not a natural disaster.”[1] Nor did all Chinese troops and local volunteers have the skills and equipment required to pull people from the rubble expertly and rapidly. Yet the Chinese government barred from Sichuan province most rescue workers from Western countries who had such skills. It was 3 to 6 days following the quake before some 200 search-and-rescue experts from “neighboring” countries were brought in, but restrictions remained on most Western personnel who could not be “accommodated.” It will not be known how many people could have been saved if national pride had not prevented most non-Asian rescue workers from being given rapid access. The stockpiling of materials and equipment came up far short. At least 700,000 tents had to be ordered http://www.brookings.edu/research/opinions/2008/06/disaster-standards-cohen
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