Manmade or Natural Disasters

It is often difficult to distinguish between what constitutes a natural and a manmade disaster. In truth it is often a combination of the two. The landslides in Uganda covered in the post below were caused by heavy rains but clearly aided and abetted by man’s clearance of land on such steep mountain slopes. Hurricane Katrina would generally be considered a natural disaster but it is widely recognised that the frequency and intensity of such storms has been increased by man’s impact on the global climate. Couple this with a city built on land much of which is below sea level surrounded by dykes that were improperly maintained and the circumstances become more complex.


International news has recently been covering what is very clearly a manmade disaster in the making, namely the oil leak off the coast of Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico. The Deepwater Horizon rig undertaking exploratory drilling for the British Petroleum (BP) exploded and sank on the 22nd April killing 11 people in the process.

Initially believed to be leaking the equivalent of 1,000 barrels of oil a day that estimate was yesterday increased to 5,000 a day. That is an enormous amount of oil and there is no end in sight at the moment, the problem being the extreme depth of the sea bed being worked. The leakage from the drill pipe is at a depth of 5000 ft below the sea surface and attempts to activate the blowout preventer with submersible robot have failed. The latest from BP is that the leaks will take some three months to close.

This leak threatens a major environmental disaster in what is known as the Fertile Crescent for fishing in the region worth approximately US$2.5 Billion per annum in particular for shrimp, crab and oyster fisheries. Worse still vitally important marsh habitats of the Mississippi delta are threatened when the slick comes ashore these areas serve as the main nursery habitats for the regions fisheries as well as supporting habitat for animals and migrating birds. Add to this the likely impact upon dolphin, turtle and seabird populations of such a volume of oil and an environmental catastrophe of potentially long lasting impact looms.

Oil spills are an issue of concern in Seychelles too. Aldabra, the largest raised atoll in the world and one of Seychelles World heritage sites lies not far from a major oil tanker lane. Small shipping-related spills in Port Victoria are not uncommon and oil exploration continues in Seychelles’ waters. Seychelles has a detailed plan and established capacity to address small spills in the Port and east coast area of Mahe and ongoing regional project is reviewing that plan and seeking to improve regional cooperation and capacities in case of a larger spills.

This project will also be seeking to improve capacity to deal with, and minimise the risk of, terrestrial spills. As development continues rapidly in Seychelles increasing amounts of fuel are “tankered” round the island either to petrol stations or to large facilities with their own storage facilities such as hotel complexes etc... spills on the steep roads of Mahe or into freshwater sources could have very serious consequences whilst fire risk at private storage facilities also needs to be considered - just another aspect of the work being enabled by this GFDRR/IBRD grant. Accidents will always happen this is inevitable minimising their occurrence and impact and increasing resilience to them is where the focus must be.