VOA标准英语2012--NGO: Disaster Relief Efforts Insufficient

NGO: Disaster Relief Efforts Insufficient¹

A development organization says the 21st Century has brought an increase in urban disasters. It’s calling for a new approach to relief efforts as the world’s urban centers continue to grow.

CHF International says there are “two distinct but intertwined trends” underway. One is urbanization. In 2008, urban populations outnumbered rural populations for the first time. The second trend, it says, is an increasing number of disasters and a growing number of people affected² by them. It cites recent the tsunami³ in Japan, floods in Bangkok, and the Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand.

Courtney Brown is CHF International’s director of humanitarian⁴ assistance. He’s also the author of the briefing paper The 21st Century Urban Disaster. 

“There are going to be more people in the world and those people are going to concentrate in urban areas. And there are going to be more disasters in the world. Just since 1970 we’ve had roughly a 400 percent increase in the number of disasters that are being reported on an annual basis. Now granted some of that is due to improved surveillance and improved reporting. But a big part of that is there’s just simply more disasters that are happening now. Climate change is driving a lot of that,” he said.

What might happen

Brown said the rate of urbanization is increasing around the world, but it’s happening faster in some areas than others.

“It is increasing most rapidly in developing countries – developing countries in Asia and in Africa. So while Africa hasn’t had a big, big urban disaster in very recent memory, the writing is on the wall that even for Africa what we’re seeing taking place in other parts of the world is on the horizon for the African continent. And so that’s why what we’re talking about now remains⁵ very relevant and pertinent⁶ in the African context,” he said.

For the past 20 years, he said, there have been three potential disasters that have kept humanitarian workers worrying when they might happen. One has come to pass.

“The first one was a big earthquake in Port-au-Prince, Haiti because all the scenarios⁷ that were being run were indicating that that was going to be bad. The second thing is a big earthquake in Tokyo, Japan. And the third event is a big earthquake in Kathmandu,” said Brown.

There are about one million people in Nepal’s largest urban center. Brown says experts believe Kathmandu is 70 years overdue⁸ for a major earthquake.

Rural vs. urban

He added many disaster relief plans and operations are based on assumptions related to rural areas.

“Those assumptions are that a family is living in a one unit house on a plot of land that it either owns or can work. The assumption about the livelihood⁹ is that rural families will produce as much as they purchase if not more. And so those assumptions don’t always hold in the urban environment,” he said.

Following the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, CHF International received a USAID grant to try something different in disaster relief. It’s called the Katye project. Katye is Creole for neighborhood and was centered in the Ravine Pintade neighborhood of Port-au-Prince. It’s estimated two-thirds of the one thousand families there were left homeless.

Brown said, “Katye is unique and unique in the sense that it chose to target at the neighborhood level not at the household level. And the reason for that is because CHF recognized that households in a neighborhood are much more interlinked than outside of urban context. Their livelihoods¹⁰ are interlinked. You have dwellings¹¹ where multiple families live in them. Picture an apartment complex.”

The idea was not simply to rebuild the neighborhood after the earthquake, but make it better and safer. Streets were made wider. Two story earthquake resistant¹² houses were constructed. Building up instead of out made the neighborhood less congested.

The model led to other ideas to reduce the effects of any future disasters. These include tougher building codes, not building in flood plains, flood retention¹³ walls, non-construction zones along shorelines. It’s known as DRR, disaster risk reduction.

Brown said the time is right to implement¹⁴ these ideas.

“We’re coming up on the one year anniversary (3/11) of the Japan Sendai earthquake/ tsunami / nuclear event. And so we wanted the release of this paper to sort of coincide with the remembrance of the events that happened a year ago,” he said.

The Japanese disaster recovery has cost $235 billion so far. It’s called the most expensive natural disaster in history.

The CHF International paper says disasters are inevitable¹⁵ and responding is a daunting¹⁶ task. But says investing in disaster risk reduction can mitigate¹⁷ the impact when they do occur.

1 insufficient   

adj.(for，of)不足的，不够的

参考例句：

• There was insufficient evidence to convict him.没有足够证据给他定罪。
• In their day scientific knowledge was insufficient to settle the matter.在他们的时代，科学知识还不能足以解决这些问题。

2 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

3 tsunami   

n.海啸

参考例句：

• Powerful quake sparks tsunami warning in Japan.大地震触发了日本的海啸预警。
• Coastlines all around the Indian Ocean inundated by a huge tsunami.大海啸把印度洋沿岸地区都淹没了。

4 humanitarian   

n.人道主义者，博爱者，基督凡人论者

参考例句：

• She has many humanitarian interests and contributes a lot to them.她拥有很多慈善事业，并作了很大的贡献。
• The British government has now suspended humanitarian aid to the area.英国政府现已暂停对这一地区的人道主义援助。

5 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

6 pertinent   

adj.恰当的；贴切的；中肯的；有关的；相干的

参考例句：

• The expert made some pertinent comments on the scheme.那专家对规划提出了一些中肯的意见。
• These should guide him to pertinent questions for further study.这些将有助于他进一步研究有关问题。

7 scenarios   

n.[意]情节；剧本；事态；脚本

参考例句：

• Further, graphite cores may be safer than non-graphite cores under some accident scenarios. 再者，根据一些事故解说，石墨堆芯可比非石墨堆芯更安全一些。 来自英汉非文学 - 环境法 - 环境法
• Again, scenarios should make it clear which modes are acceptable to users in various contexts. 同样，我们可以运用场景剧本来搞清楚在不同情境下哪些模式可被用户接受。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

8 overdue   

adj.过期的，到期未付的；早该有的，迟到的

参考例句：

• The plane is overdue and has been delayed by the bad weather.飞机晚点了，被坏天气耽搁了。
• The landlady is angry because the rent is overdue.女房东生气了，因为房租过期未付。

9 livelihood   

n.生计，谋生之道

参考例句：

• Appropriate arrangements will be made for their work and livelihood.他们的工作和生活会得到妥善安排。
• My father gained a bare livelihood of family by his own hands.父亲靠自己的双手勉强维持家计。

10 livelihoods   

生计，谋生之道( livelihood的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• First came the earliest individualistic pioneers who depended on hunting and fishing for their livelihoods. 走在最前面的是早期的个人主义先驱者，他们靠狩猎捕鱼为生。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件
• With little influence over policies, their traditional livelihoods are threatened. 因为马赛族人对政策的影响力太小，他们的传统生计受到了威胁。

11 dwellings   

n.住处，处所( dwelling的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The development will consist of 66 dwellings and a number of offices. 新建楼区将由66栋住房和一些办公用房组成。
• The hovels which passed for dwellings are being pulled down. 过去用作住室的陋屋正在被拆除。 来自《简明英汉词典》

12 resistant   

adj.(to)抵抗的，有抵抗力的

参考例句：

• Many pests are resistant to the insecticide.许多害虫对这种杀虫剂有抵抗力。
• They imposed their government by force on the resistant population.他们以武力把自己的统治强加在持反抗态度的人民头上。

13 retention   

n.保留，保持，保持力，记忆力

参考例句：

• They advocate the retention of our nuclear power plants.他们主张保留我们的核电厂。
• His retention of energy at this hour is really surprising.人们惊叹他在这个时候还能保持如此旺盛的精力。

14 implement   

n.(pl.)工具，器具；vt.实行，实施，执行

参考例句：

• Don't undertake a project unless you can implement it.不要承担一项计划，除非你能完成这项计划。
• The best implement for digging a garden is a spade.在花园里挖土的最好工具是铁锹。

15 inevitable   

adj.不可避免的，必然发生的

参考例句：

• Mary was wearing her inevitable large hat.玛丽戴着她总是戴的那顶大帽子。
• The defeat had inevitable consequences for British policy.战败对英国政策不可避免地产生了影响。

16 daunting   

adj.使人畏缩的

参考例句：

• They were faced with the daunting task of restoring the house.他们面临着修复房子的艰巨任务。
• Starting a new job can be a daunting prospect.开始一项新工作有时会让人望而却步。

17 mitigate   

vt.（使）减轻，（使）缓和

参考例句：

• The government is trying to mitigate the effects of inflation.政府正试图缓和通货膨胀的影响。
• Governments should endeavour to mitigate distress.政府应努力缓解贫困问题。