Understanding Extreme Geohazards: The Science of the Disaster Risk Management Cycle

European Science Foundation Conference
November 28 to December 1, 2011, Sant Feliu de Guixols, Spain

ANALYSIS AND PREVENTION OF NATURAL HAZARDS IN DRC: A UNOPS PILOT PROJECT

Dario TEDESCO
United Nation Operation Project Services, Goma, DRC.
Department of Environmental Sciences, 2nd University of Naples, Italy.

The creation by the UNOPS of a “Hazards Management Unit” in Eastern Congo is the first project completely dedicated to Natural Disasters Management by the UN. In particular, the city of Goma is considered, in function of the several natural hazards existing in and around the city, as the most dangerous city in the world. The logarithmic increases of its population (250,000 in 1995, 400,000 in 2002 and 1,100.000 in 2011), the complete lack of infrastructures and city plan, make the city prone to any kind of disaster. The 2002 eruptive event of Mount Nyiragongo destroying part of the city and leaving 130,000 homeless is just one example. Obviously the city is fast growing and expanding towards the volcano.

The UN “small” team has first of all identified the different hazards existing all around the region: namely volcanic, seismic, deadly ground-soil CO2 gas emanations (locally called “mazuku”), rain-plume interactions giving origin to extremely acid rains (up to pH 1), naturally poor water quality and finally the existence of a “killer lake”. All these treats will be discussed during the talk, explaining the different interactions between people and the local environment.

The project must (i) support the local volcano observatory (GVO), through institutional, technical and scientific support; (ii) facilitate and sometime supporting the coming of international scientists in DRC, whose projects fit the needs of the GVO or the stage abroad of GVO scientists; (iii) correctly a clearly informing local authorities and humanitarian agencies and ngo's about the current activity of the volcanoes/earthquakes/lake; (iv) to produce and apply a “Contingency Plan” for the city of Goma in function of different eruptive scenarios; (v) to start a didactic project in primary and secondary schools to “how to live with active volcanoes”; (vi) producing a complete inventory at regional scale of the different hazards present in the area.

One of the major problem is the difficulty to get funds (1,5-2,0 M USD/year), the search for donors, to increase the understanding that Prevention is more important than response and how to assure and produce a certain visibility to donors through reports and results.

The UNOPS Project in Goma is a pilot project that should/could be reproduced all over the word in developing countries through the agreements between international agencies/ngo's and political (civil Defence) and scientific institutions working in major geo-hazards.