Rethinking disability, natural disasters
By George Chiusiwa
Malawi is faced by weather and climate-related hazards which affect both rural and urban populations. Unarguably, the impact and loss that results from these hazards are high, when one considers the country’s high poverty levels and the fragile capacity we have to prepare and recover from these natural disasters.
The recent floods that have affected over half of the country’s districts, with Phalombe, Chikwawa and Nsanje as worst affected, left a huge dent on the economy. The damage of these floods on the social fabric, too, is telling when one thinks of the lives lost and hundreds of households that were displaced. An estimated 630 000 people were affected countrywide. This is according to the Department of Disaster Management Affairs (Dodma) and the UN Malawi office.
While different populations may face similar risks of exposure to the negative effects of disasters such as floods, their vulnerability hinges on their socio-economic conditions, availability of resources and infrastructure. Persons with disabilities, who constitute a significant proportion of the poorest of the poor in Malawi, are clearly disproportionately affected when disasters and emergencies strike.
In most countries affected by disaster in developing and developed world alike, the disproportionate impact of occurrences like floods to persons with disabilities is exacerbated by inaccessible evacuation, poor response, and weak recovery efforts and exclusion of disability issues in disaster management planning and preparedness. In fact, the National Council on Disability (NCD) in the United States estimated that a disproportionate number of fatalities of the Hurricane Katrina were persons with disabilities.
Surely, the recent floods in our country have affected many persons with disabilities socio-economically; thus a disability-specific assessment of the floods can unravel the exact plight of such people.
Maybe the question could be how the various relief and rescue interventions are addressing specific needs of persons with disabilities in the affected areas. How effective have these efforts been as they relate to the needs and challenges of persons with disabilities?
Granted, government realises the need for strategic and proactive investment in disaster risk reduction for sustainable poverty reduction and ultimate national development; but the existing institutional, policy and legislative framework could do better.
Yes, these tools could do better to respond to the emergency needs of marginalised segments of the Malawi population like persons with disabilities and the elderly. Malawi adopted the National Adaptation Programme of Action (Napa) that clarifies the impact of climate change on disasters; the country has a Disaster Preparedness and Relief Act of 1991 and there is a full Department of Disaster Management Affairs which has a Disaster Contingency Plan in place.
However, the absence of a Disaster Risk Management (DRM) Policy puts into question the country’s commitment to managing disaster risks.
One would thus doubt the special consideration of persons with physical, visual, hearing and intellectual disabilities among the affected population if there are no policy guidelines to manage the risks of the floods for the general population. That the country’s DRM policy has been in draft form over the years is not only inconceivable but also too big a joke to fathom in this era of climate change.
For persons with disabilities, the climate change discourses around adaptation, mitigation, vulnerability and resilience are of particular importance. The degree of vulnerability to natural occurrences like floods is determined by underlying natural, human, social, physical and financial factors and this is why persons with disabilities are one of the most affected marginalised groups in Malawi because the majority of them are mired in abject poverty. As a country let us not neglect persons with disabilities in climate change and disaster risk management matters.
Article 11 of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities—which Malawi ratified in 2009—obligates States parties to take all necessary measures to ensure the protection and safety of persons with disabilities in situations of risk, including situations of armed conflict, humanitarian emergencies and the occurrence of natural disasters.
It is, however, unfortunate to note that while almost all critical fundamental human rights guarantees under the convention were domesticated through the Disability Act of 2012, the issue of rights of this marginalised group during situations of risk and humanitarian emergencies is conspicuously silent in the new disability law.
*George Chiusiwa is a human rights worker based in Lilongwe but writing in his personal capacity.
