Similar to other disasters, landslides will result in trauma for impacted individuals: Nader Naderpajouh
As the shock of the Wayand landslides sinks in India and the world, what of those people who have survived the disaster or families who have lost loved ones? How do they come to terms with the pain and bereavement?
Associate Professor Nader Naderpajouh is Head of School of Project Management at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Sydney is an expert on natural disasters.
His areas of expertise include risk and resilience; impact of disasters on communities and disaster response.
He spoke to Down To Earth about what governments should do to help landslide-affected individuals and communities.
Edited excerpts:
Q. What are the impacts of a landslide on affected communities, especially survivors?
A. In addition to the direct impact of landslides in terms of loss of life and damages to homes and other assets, they often result in disruptions such as cutting transportation infrastructure. In some cases, villages and towns will be completely disconnected for a considerable period. In other cases, they lose their direct road or rail connections, and they have to use longer alternative roads. Such disruptions will often increase cost of access to supply of food, fuel, and other resources. In some cases, cities that rely on visitors such as tourists may lose a source of income. And in many cases, the supply chain for industries may be disrupted. For example, communities relying on the sale of their agricultural produce may be impacted significantly in long-term. All these indirect impacts will increase the cost of living and remain until the access is retained, which in many cases may take months or even years.
Q. Are survivors affected by trauma and illnesses like PTSD?
A. Similar to other disasters, landslides will result in trauma for impacted individuals. First, people who have experienced the landslide may face the trauma of the event itself and the period until they are recovered. Then, the trauma can extend to people who are directly impacted by loss of community members, families and friends, as well as homes or other assets. Finally, the longstanding impact of disruption may deepen trauma. This last one is very important as the media attention associated with the event will diminish, while people still face substantial disruptions in their life.
Q. What type of healthcare arrangements should be present in areas that are landslide-prone?
A. Landslides are shocks and they primarily require emergency response. In addition, similar to other disasters there are requirements for psychological support for recovery. But again, focusing on the long-term disruption, there might be need to replace loss of access to healthcare for the communities that are cut by landslides. These are often very important as the impacted communities might cover larger populations, compared to the directly impacted community by the landslide with considerably long-term disruptions.
Q. How can landslide-prone communities be resilient?
A. With the increasing number of landslides globally, there is a need to rethink the housing locations. In some cases, building resilience include increase of native vegetations, hard infrastructures such as barrier walls, or stabilisation of slopes. But these solutions have very local impact and are not feasible at larger scales. Therefore, there is a need to shift to adaptation, preparing communities for how to respond to landslides, supporting the required equipment, providing alternative telecommunication choices for connectivity, and supports for them to sustain long-term disconnection. In many cases priority for building resilience is to address economic impact of disruption for agriculture and other industries that provide jobs and income for those communities. In some recent cases globally, the impacted communities also faced reduced security and violence. In these cases, there is a need to build social capital and provide resources for self-organised networks within communities to ensure resilience.