DRDM on the move...

Following its incorporation into the Department of Environment in July the former department has been re-structured into the Divisions of Risk and Disaster Management with two Director General posts covering the portfolios of Policy Planning and Risk Management and Operations, Education and Communications respectively.


This restructuring reflects a refinement of the national approach to Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) and accompanies the development of a new Policy for National Disaster Management which sets all national objectives and activities into the globally recognised context of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR). The proposed policy was presented to the National Disaster Committee in September and is now going through the standard Government approval procedures - as and when the Policy is finalised and endorsed will return to that subject on the project Blog.

DRDM has also, as of November, moved offices to the new “Global Village” complex at Mont Fleuri in the first of a two step transition. The change in location offers various benefits:

1) The primary one is strategic positioning for emergency response. The former offices in the town centre posed potential limitations as the frequent traffic congestion there could serve to greatly lengthen response times whilst adequate parking for DRDM vehicles was also a constant problem.

2) The new location also brings the Divisions much closer to their new administrative centre of the Department of Environment in the Botanical Gardens, whist being strategically placed at the centre of key roads to La Misere, Sans Soucis and of course the east coast highway.

The construction of a temporary Emergency Operations Centre is to start early 2011 in the Botanical Gardens at which time the Division of Operations, Education and Communications will move to that location to enable day-today DRR operations.

So a time of transition and evolution for DRR in Seychelles, check back periodically to see how the ongoing project contributes to this process...

The Seychelles Department of Risk and Disaster Management

Incidences in recent years have served to heighten the awareness of Seychelles’ vulnerability to disaster events.

• The heavy rains with attendant flooding and landslides in 1997/98 due to the El Nino Southern Oscillation event that occurred at that time.
• The 2002 “microburst” windstorm that hit the Praslin group of islands causing significant infrastructural and forest-cover damage
• The 2004 Tsunami and in particular its impact on the east coast of Mahe, and
• Cyclone Bondo that hit Farquhar island in 2006.
  

All these are recent examples that raised the profile of disaster preparedness and management in Seychelles. These instances coupled with the expansion of coastal infrastructure and residential areas and the ongoing changes in the world climate mean that Seychelles has to properly integrate the tenants of Disaster Risk Reduction into its development sectors and the everyday life of its population.

In response to these changing realities the Government of Seychelles formed the Department of Risk and Disaster Management (DRDM) in 2006 with a mandate to oversee all aspects of the disaster management cycle. DRDM falls under the Vice President’s Office, with a Principal Secretary, Director General, Secretariat, two technical sections (Early Warning and Sensitisation & Disaster Mitigation, Risk and Impact Assessment) and a project management unit.

Since 2006, in addition to its recurrent activities, DRDM has implemented two major projects;

• Strengthening National Capacity for Tsunami Early Warning and Response Systems
• UNDP Capacity Needs Project for Disaster Management and Early Warning.
  

DRDM has recently received a World Bank/Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (IBRD/GFDRR) grant to undertake the: “Seychelles National Disaster Preparedness and Response Project”. The commencement of this project is very timely coinciding as it does with the 5-year anniversary of the 2004 tsunami that caused such tragic loss of life and widespread and extensive infrastructural damage in the Indian Ocean region.

The project has two primary objectives:

1). Identify and address shortfalls in existing institutional capacity, sectoral and contingency planning and corer equipment needs.

2). Integrate disaster risk reduction issues into national strategic documents and processes.

These objectives will be achieved through three activities the third of which is a communications programme that seeks to use diverse media in order to comprehensively cover the project activities and raise awareness of the national initiatives to mainstream disaster risk reduction. The establishment of this blog forms an integral part of the communications programme and seeks to provide regular updates on the overall project, its implementation and the related activities undertaken by the staff of the Department and Risk and Disaster Management.