By BRUNO ISOHI SHIOSO
My heart goes out to the families of those who died, and to all the people victimised by the recent mud floods at a rural village situated at a border crossing between Nepal and China.
It was just a normal day for them when, suddenly, the entire neighbourhood was engulfed by raging ‘mountains’ of flash floods that left a trail of hundreds dead, many maimed and thousands unaccounted for. The sheer scale of the destruction — ranging from bridges, roads and buildings to personal property — is beyond comprehension.
Watching the incident’s satellite imagery leaves one cringing, as desperate locals, including the young and old, as well as visiting tourists, scrambled for survival. Encountering such a scene for the first time could convince one that it was a work of creative art recreating an Armageddon. Yet it was nature’s reality at work.
Nature’s fury defies comprehension, even with the best of plans. It is what is aptly called in engineering project management Murphy’s Law. This law explains that some contingencies may not be easily foreseen or mitigated against, even with the best prior planning. Anything that can go wrong will go wrong, and when it does, it is usually at the least expected time for meaningful counteraction.
Yet as humans, though hapless oftentimes, we are nonetheless not entirely helpless against this law. Planning we must, and, secondly, we have the ability to proactively forestall emergencies within the scope of our understanding and then endeavour to muster the power of resilience, hence swiftly bouncing back to near normality after any disruption.
Whatever the cause of such untold calamity, there is always science to aid us through early detection. This is as much a science as it is an art of understanding our immediate environment and remaining conscious of any possible threats that we must work closely to identify.
As it is said, the devil is always in the detail, and the environment carries all the tell-tale signs that may warn us of impending risks if we scan well enough.
Therefore, as we condole with Nepal over the sad loss, we also ought to think hard about home, in the unlikely event that such misfortune visits us.
First, is there an early warning of an impending risk? And, if yes, what are our mitigation measures as a country and, further, at individual levels?
Such an assessment is more important now than ever, given the early warnings we have received and continue to receive from our national authorities regarding a confirmed El Niño phenomenon.
The Kenya Meteorological Department, the Ministry of Interior and National Administration, the Kenya Red Cross, including the Kenya Coast Guard Service and other State and non-State actors, are on record sounding warnings of imminent inclement weather conditions that are assessed to affect the world in one way or another, Kenya inclusive. And for Kenya specifically, disruptive rains are expected in the very near future.
As a government, various interventions are under planning and consideration. Multi-agency strategy engagements between humanitarian partners are in session, bringing together the national and devolved governments, civil society and NGOs, bilateral partners, including the general public.
This is so because humanitarian efforts are collaborative and multidisciplinary in nature, and no single agency or authority can go at it alone.
For littoral and lake communities, including those in riparian and low-lying riverine areas, the Kenya Coast Guard Service continues to engage communities through respective Beach Management Units (BMUs) and community leaders under an elaborate Community Engagement Programme (CEP) and Safety Training for Fisherfolk (STF).
Through these two novel community engagement forums, fishermen and women plying their daily trade deep in the waters, and who are first-line victims of inclement weather, are trained on critical safety and survival measures and tips, including after-the-fact resilience and how to rebound to normal routines.
Notwithstanding the above interventions, only so much can be done to contain nature’s fury. But leveraging knowledge, coupled with shared responsibility for safety, offers a reasonable level of assurance and hope for both our collective and personal safety and survival.
But one irreducible minimum is getting out of harm’s way.
You do not negotiate with nature’s fury. For those living in at-risk, low-lying marshlands, an early shift to higher ground might be the only solution.
The Kenya Coast Guard Service, therefore, shall continue working with fishing communities and all those at risk, and further calls for personal responsibility during the impending El Niño inclement weather.
For emergency services, we can be reached on our hotlines 0707 430 108 and 0721 353 008. For fisherfolk only, they are encouraged to continue registering, especially those who are yet to do so, and remain connected to our mobile telephony reporting tool, namely ‘Usalama Baharini’ (Safety at Sea).
Bruno Shioso, is the Director-General, Kenya Coast Guard Service (KCGS)
