Authors
1 Department of Natural Disaster Management, Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 2 Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Introduction: On December 26, 2003, a devastating earthquake jolted historic city of Bam in Iran. About 26000 people were killed and more than 30000 were injured. The historic monuments including the 2500 year old Arg-e Bam were destroyed severely. Since the scale of the disaster and the number of human casualties was high, management of the crisis became more complicated. Thus, people who were affiliated with different Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) helped the government to rescue the affected people.
Methods: In the present case study, by interviewing experts and NGOs, their contribution and activities in Bam earthquake were investigated.
Results: A few hours after the earthquake, the local and international NGOs started their rescue activities spontaneously and continued their help even during the reconstruction period. Their activities included relief and rescue, food support, sanitation, treatments, emergency settlement, as well as providing physiological treatment and training. It was shown that the affected people were satisfied with NGOs’ activities while governmental organizations could not coordinate well with them.
Conclusion: Well organized civilian and religious groups can be helpful for governmental organizations in assisting people affected by the earthquake. Therefore, different techniques were proposed to improve the process of preparedness and response during disasters and to have a better communication and coordination between governmental organizations (that are in charge of the crisis situations) and NGOs.
Keywords
Saeed Fallah1 Jhila Hosseini nejad2
1 Department of Natural Disaster Management, Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
2 Faculty of Architecture and Urban Planning, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran
| ARTICLE INFO | ABSTRACT |
| REVIEW ARTICLE | Introduction: On December 26, 2003, a devastating earthquake jolted historic city of Bam in Iran. About 26000 people were killed and more than 30000 were injured. The historic monuments including the 2500 year old Arg-e Bam were destroyed severely. Since the scale of the disaster and the number of human casualties was high, management of the crisis became more complicated. Thus, people who were affiliated with different Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) helped the government to rescue the affected people. Methods: In the present case study, by interviewing experts and NGOs, their contribution and activities in Bam earthquake were investigated. Results: A few hours after the earthquake, the local and international NGOs started their rescue activities spontaneously and continued their help even during the reconstruction period. Their activities included relief and rescue, food support, sanitation, treatments, emergency settlement, as well as providing physiological treatment and training. It was shown that the affected people were satisfied with NGOs’ activities while governmental organizations could not coordinate well with them. Conclusion: Well organized civilian and religious groups can be helpful for governmental organizations in assisting people affected by the earthquake. Therefore, different techniques were proposed to improve the process of preparedness and response during disasters and to have a better communication and coordination between governmental organizations (that are in charge of the crisis situations) and NGOs. Keywords: Disasters, Earthquakes, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), Bam, Iran |
| Article history: Received: 23 Des 2017 Revised: 7 Jan 2018 Accepted: 10 Feb 2018 |
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| *Corresponding author: Saeed Fallah Address: Natural Disaster Management Department, Graduate Faculty of Environment, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Email: Sd.fallah@gmail.com Tel: +9831492225 |
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NGOs and Disaster Management
Disaster Management definition
A disaster is a sudden unplanned event
that causes great damage or serious loss to an organization (6). There are two main origins of hazards, namely natural and technological disasters. Natural disasters include hydro-meteorological, geophysical and biological disasters. The technological disasters comprise industrial, transport and miscellaneous
accidents (7).
Disaster management involves plans, structures, and arrangements established to engage the normal endeavors of governments, voluntary and private agencies in a comprehensive and coordinated way to respond to the whole spectrum of emergency needs. Disaster management cycle has components that might interact with each other and even covered partially by another component (8). Each component of comprehensive disaster management cycle is shown in Figure1.
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