- Title
- Local hazard and risk zoning exercise in the Gambia
- Abstract
- The Gambia is a vulnerable country to disasters due to its geographical location and stage in development. Located within the Sahel belt exposes The Gambia to harsh climates, which make it difficult to grow crops and sustain infrastructure stable enough to withstand the extreme weather conditions. Hazards and associated risks are prevalent in The Gambia as a result of the limited resources and capacity to prepare and respond to them. This project was undertaken to highlight the hazards and associated risks that The Gambia experience, with the intention to then provide important and necessary data for an effective response. The Regional Disaster Management Committees (RDMC), represented in each region of The Gambia, are the lowest active structures in risk governance according to the existing legislation making them the closest contacts to the community. For this reason, the RDMC members were chosen to be involved in the participatory focused group discussions (FGD) in order to gain the most authentic information about the current hazards and associated risks at the local level. The FGD enabled free discussions of the hazards and risks from each institution. The institutions which were carefully selected to ensure there was a true and fair representation of the organisations working in The Gambia including gender and age equality. The results from the project revealed that the hazards and associated risks that the communities felt had the greatest impact on their livelihoods were flood, windstorm, bush and domestic fire, and human disease outbreak (particularly related to primary health care). Other risks that were mentioned included boat accidents, pest invasion (hippos, birds and monkeys), livestock disease and road traffic accidents. Due to the regional geo-political ecology, The Gambia does not fall as a regular humanitarian fund recipient country. This can be attributed to the lack of hazard and risk communication as well as the availability of data generation. This project therefore aims to generate and communicate substantial localised data, which advocates for The Gambia’s humanitarian needs in terms of building disaster resilient communities in-line with Hyogo Framework for Action (2005-2015).
- Publication Date
- Nov. 2, 2014, 6 p.m.
- Category
- Geoscientific Information
- information pertaining to earth sciences. Examples: geophysical features and processes, geology, minerals, sciences dealing with the composition, structure and origin of the earth s rocks, risks of earthquakes, volcanic activity, landslides, gravity information, soils, permafrost, hydrogeology, erosion
- Regions
- Gambia
- Responsible
- andy
- Language
- English
- Supplemental Information
- drought, strong_wind
Comments (0 total)
Log in to add a comment