A Dose of Prevention

South Africa, a Leader in Disaster Response, Works to Improve

In January 2013, weeks of heavy rain caused the Limpopo River in Mozambique to swell and spill over its banks, flooding surrounding farmland and villages. About 185,000 people were forced to flee their homes as the floodwaters rose. Damaged transmission lines cut half of the nation’s power supply. And although a disaster like this could easily overwhelm the resources of a country like Mozambique, its people got a helping hand from their neighbor to the south.

A team of about 100 from all branches of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), including eight divers, pilots flying Oryx helicopters and C-130 aircraft, and military doctors, nurses and environmental health officers responded. Team members transported 150 tons of supplies donated by a nongovernmental organization. They also rescued about 500 people, many from trees and rooftops, and treated hundreds for injuries and illness.

South Africa boasts one of the most advanced disaster response structures on the continent. This is by necessity and has been earned through years of hard experience. The country’s geography ranges from the arid mountains to flood-prone valleys. There are regions of the country that get buried in winter blizzards, and there are areas where a small spark can set off a wildfire. Sometimes seasonal shifts transform a drought-prone spot into one that is underwater in a matter of months.

Dr. Andries Jordaan, director of the Disaster Management Training and Education Centre for Africa at the University of the Free State, has studied the country’s disaster landscape for years. He said the gravest disaster threats to South Africa’s economy and people are droughts, floods and wildfires. Overpopulation and urbanization in places such as the Western Cape province, where influxes of migrants have sought employment, have exacerbated these problems in recent years. These population movements tend to stress resources, he said.

“A lot of people are flocking towards Western Cape, and that puts a lot of pressure on our current resources there in terms of water provision and drinking water,” Jordaan told ADF. “People tend to settle in vulnerable locations, flood plains, just putting up some informal housing, and that obviously makes the whole population more vulnerable.” Additionally, he said, many in these communities do not have electricity, so they use open fires, which lead to wildfires.

From 1980 to 2010, an average of 585,000 people were affected by disasters each year in South Africa. Although flooding was the most common with 25 recorded incidents, drought was the costliest per event. The average drought cost the country nearly $143 million, and the most destructive on record cost about $1 billion, according to the United Nations website PreventionWeb.

Recognizing that it needed a comprehensive plan to tackle disasters, South Africa enacted the Disaster Management Act (DMA) in 2002. It replaced the antiquated Civil Defence Act that had focused heavily on response, search and rescue instead of planning and prevention. In 2005, the country developed the National Disaster Management Framework to implement the DMA. The act created the National Disaster Management Centre in Pretoria, which coordinates disaster response across the country. The DMA also decentralized the responsibilities, giving more power to officials at the provincial and municipal levels. The goal was to create a nationwide, integrated system of disaster management, prioritize risk assessment and risk reduction, and formalize channels for response.

“We came to the conclusion that disaster management as we now understood it not only included the civil defense or the response initiatives, but also included issues of preparedness, awareness, mitigation and the developmental realm, which the old Civil Defence Act did not take care of,” said Anthony Kesten, chairman of the executive committee of the Disaster Management Institute of Southern Africa.

The DMA was widely hailed as a model for the continent, but experts say implementation has lagged. Many of the required risk assessments have not taken place. “I think they are excellent documents. The act is a good act. The framework is an excellent framework,” Jordaan said. “The problem was implementation. … It was supposed to be fully implemented by 2007, but currently I don’t think we’ve completed 20 percent of our targets of implementation.”

The act also did not formalize the role of the military. The SANDF was essentially written out of the disaster management framework, to be called upon to respond on an ad hoc, as-needed basis, Jordaan said. Historically, this has not been the case. For decades before the DMA, reserve forces across the country handled disaster management in large part. Reserve military commanders were given the authority, training and equipment to respond to disasters.

The modern SANDF has numerous assets for disaster response. The Air Force is skilled at transporting aid to hard-hit areas and using helicopters to rescue those stranded by floods. Since 1979, the South African Air Force has operated a fire training school that teaches firefighting and rescue skills. Military engineers also are adept at disaster response measures such as building bridges across floodwaters. The South African Military Health Service is prepared to set up emergency medical clinics for mass-casualty events. Additionally, the SANDF operates the national emergency alarm radio, which is essential to disseminating information during disasters.

Although the SANDF has repeatedly been called on to respond to disasters in recent years, the DMA reduced the military’s role. That was expected to change in 2013 because an amendment to the DMA was being considered that would define the SANDF’s role as part of the national disaster framework.

“We realized that there was a shortcoming. Because the military obviously is the organization with the command and control capacity, they have the logistics, the personnel to provide support to the nation,” Jordaan said. “They can do it. They’re the only department that can really do that in case of disasters. So I’m really glad about this new amendment to the act where they will become more involved in the future.”

Kesten said the role of the military will continue to be one of response as requested by the director of the national center. “Their primary function remains the defense of the country,” he said. “But their secondary functions are related to search and rescue, and response and recovery during times of disaster.”

Brig. Gen. Xolani Mabanga, spokesman for the SANDF, said disaster response has never stopped being an important part of the military’s mission. In fact, he said, it is integral to one of the SANDF’s three strategic objectives. These objectives are: defense against aggression, promoting peace and stability in the region, and providing support to the South African people.

In keeping with the third objective, every year during the rainy season, the SANDF monitors flood levels and positions resources in provinces where floods are most likely to occur, Mabanga said. “We have to be on alert,” he said. “And these elements should always be ready, and they should be positioned in areas where they can affect a quick response.”

As the DMA is amended and implemented in coming years, Mabanga anticipates the military also will re-evaluate its role, but the role will continue to be one of support for civilian officials and civilian structures.

The most likely scenario is that when disaster strikes, a joint operations center will be set up and all the relevant players will assemble to develop a coordinated response, Mabanga said. The civilian command structure will request certain resources and personnel from the SANDF, which will, in turn, relay those requests to the nearest Joint Operational Headquarters, which are located in each of the nine provinces. The requests must be sent up both the military chain of command and the civilian disaster response chain of command to get approval. If planning is done in advance, approval can be quicker and more efficient.

“We cannot jump in and just do it alone,” Mabanga said. “We have to follow the structure and get the mandate or the approval from them to provide or to assist or to lead in such instances.”

Although the SANDF stands ready to respond to disasters, all sides seem to agree that the most important aspects of disaster management in coming years will be in the realm of mitigation and prevention. The country has made progress in this regard. The South African Weather Services (SAWS) uses satellite data to provide short-term and long-range forecasts of drought or flood conditions so authorities can be prepared. The Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries is working with farmers to teach them land-use practices that can mitigate the impact of extreme weather.

The most efficient response, after all, is to avoid disaster in the first place. “We have a really good idea which populations are at risk to what hazards, and the provinces and the different municipalities try to plan for that,” Jordaan said. “We need to put more money into risk reduction and reducing vulnerabilities instead of response. … Making sure people don’t live in flood plains, early warning systems. Your most efficient tool is awareness.”