ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH

Environmental Health

Environmental Health

Q1) This study has been carried out in the year of the tenth anniversary of Hurricane Mitch, in October 2008. Mitch was a hurricane of the highest intensity which battered c.90% of the territory of Honduras for 4-5 days unleashing 600 millimetres of rain (on average over the national territory) in that short period7 (Fúnez and Lara, 2006). The magnitude of 600mm of precipitation within a few days is brought home by the figures on average levels of rainfall in the regions of Honduras selected for this study, ranging between 1,477 and 1,648 mm in a year. As an international comparison, the severe flooding in England in summer 2007 was caused by total cumulative rainfall in May, June and July 2007 of 395.1mm on average across England & Wales in three months.

This Policy Position Statement groups out our present place pertaining to inundate and seaboard risk administration in the UK and the trials we face in the future, especially in the context of weather change. Floods and seaboard erosion will not be stopped but they can be managed. Failure to organise the dangers of inundating and of seaboard erosion in a sustainable way will lead to proceeded decrease of life and house, comprehensive impairment to the UK finances and ongoing misery for millions of people.

With the need to boost expending to address the present difficulties and with weather change and development anticipated to boost inundate and erosion risk in future, activity is required now by government to evolve designs to construct the needed abilities capacity. The longer period abilities provision will need to engage larger collaboration amidst the government, learned organisations, the localized groups and the inundate and seaboard erosion risk industry.

This study has 'scoped' principles to guide flood risk management as part of disaster risk reduction - to test their usefulness in Honduras as a pilot to their potential for application to other countries. 'Scoping' study refers to research employing relatively rapid research methods, namely: desk study, preliminary telephone interviews, semi-structured interviews face-to-face with representatives of key public bodies and other actors as well as other experts/specialists, together with observations 'in the field'.

Threat of flood is as old as human settlement near river and coast, but water managers are just beginning to absorb the significance of flood risk in the face of adverse meteorological phenomena of increasing intensity. In Honduras, floods are the most common and damaging type of natural disaster, which means that flood risk management is a key element in disaster risk reduction.

In Honduras, flooding is caused by cyclones/hurricanes (such as Mitch), including flash floods, as well as by gradual accumulations of flood waters (crecidas lentas) causing rivers to overflow10. Disaster risk reduction (DRR) is a relatively new concept, generally understood to mean:- “the development and application of policies, strategies and practices to minimise vulnerabilities to disaster risks throughout society” (Twigg 2007, page 6).

No community, notes Twigg (ibid), can ever be completely safe from natural and man-made ...