Here we go again, a catastrophic and a painful industrial accident on August 4, 2020 in Lebanon-relying on its classification as an accident based on preliminary reports – the explosion killed hundreds, injured and displaced thousands, damaged property, and demolished an already aging infrastructure in a country that suffers economically and politically.
I follow reports in the main stream Arabic media in the region, I noticed that they mainly interview political and military analysts to comment on the painful accident, while the Western coverage media talk to specialists in industrial disaster management and focuses more on the causes of the accident and ways to help Lebanon in search and rescue. These two different approaches mirror the different root causes of the way Arab region countries deal with large incidents with catastrophic human consequences.
Early reports attributed the cause of the catastrophic explosion, which may be equivalent to an earthquake of 4.5 degrees on the Richter scale, to the explosion of large quantities of up to 2750 tons of ammonium nitrate stored in a warehouse in Beirut port. Initial reports confirmed the lack of information on how the explosion occurred, this is supported by many videos appeared in social media.
Declaring State of Emergency
The next morning, the Lebanese government declared Beirut a disaster city in conjunction with the declaration of a state of emergency by security services, which basically puts the powers at the disposal of the army to deal with the event. So, what does State of Emergency actually mean particularly responding to an industrial incident -until now-, before answering this question, it is necessary to clarify that this event will not be the last in the region in the absence of a local and regional framework for effective and scientific disaster management away from politics or political agenda in the region.
Back To Basics
As emergency and disaster management practitioner and academic, I write, lecture and train about the need for an integrated national system to deal with disasters of all kinds, natural, health, chemical, industrial, and terrorism.
I find myself compelled to send an emergency message to decision-makers in the region for the need to adopt An integrated mechanism and methodology for dealing with disasters of all kinds based on science, experience and the experiences of the countries that preceded us. The Covid-19 epidemic has proven the lack of joint action among the countries of the world in the framework of dealing with intercontinental disasters. This major failure comes despite the largest communication and medical revolution in history to facilitate the exchange of knowledge. What happened is on the contrary, populism has increased, the forces of ethnic extremism have strengthened, and unilateralism and isolation decisions have emerged among countries. The world closes its borders and neglects the interests of its people and neglects to resort to science and scholars
In order to describe the state of emergency, one must explain the key elements of the national disaster management system that enable declaring the state of emergency in a city as a tool. it is important to highlight that disaster and emergency management processes are the outcome of academic science based on field experiences since the 1930s. It should be also noted that the term “disaster management” differs from what some media professionals use, such as the term “crisis management,” which may be used to hint at political tactics to deal with a political issues which includes the principle of political interests gains and losses with the absence of an ethical dimensions. The term “disaster management” in this article context refers to the programs and procedures that the state or institution undertakes to reduce disasters of all kinds, health and industrial and mitigate their effects on life and help society and employees to return to normal life. It is the responsibility of the state at the national level and higher management at the level of companies and institutions in public sector.
State of Emergency As A Tool
The National Emergency Management System authorizes politicians to use the declaration of a state of emergency to facilitate and activate the national and international response and direct the state’s human, financial and other resources to respond to the disaster by providing the following services:
- Rescue and search
- Medical services
- Restoring vital services such as food, electricity and water
- Preserving the security and law enforcement
- Beginning recovery procedures and returning to normal life, such as homes and schools
- Pumping and facilitating material support for the local community to revive the local economy
The declaration of a state of emergency in the countries of the region often leads to delegating the powers of disaster management to the army in the absence of a national framework concerned with disaster management, preparedness and training on it through a clearly defined system. Some majority of countries in the region utilize crisis or disaster committees with across discipline members. Experience, practice and research have proven the ineffectiveness of this approach, especially in the absence of a practical framework that organizes the tasks and roles of the members of these committees, which is often a reactive and not a proactive approach for dealing with disasters with a mindset of risk management.
Next, I will briefly explain the elements of an integrated national disaster management system to clarify their interdependence and the proactive approach in dealing with disasters of all kinds, with the hope that this will reach policy and decision makers in the region.
Absolute Political Support
The disaster management system begins with full political commitment from the top of the political authority to develop a national strategy, plans and procedures to protect members of society in a proactive manner and to emphasize that this is the responsibility of the state, its agencies and institutions through the constitution and the taxes and fees it collects from members of society
An Independent National Civilian Agency for Managing Disasters
This agency aims to set legislation, procedures and policies to reduce disasters of all kinds, and is considered financially and administratively independent and reports directly to the highest political authority, such as the head of state. This in to reduce conflict of interests, negative bureaucracies and turf battels. The agency is managed by civilians’ experts in natural disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, risk management, emergency response operations, recovery sciences, and legal professionals specialized in developing legal legislation before submitting it to the legislative and executive authority. The agency also supports universities and academic institutions and promote disaster management majors and research to provide the community with specialized leaders in this field.
National Readiness Framework
This framework is concerned with defining the system and philosophy of readiness to prevent disasters of all kinds, mitigate their effects through clear matrix with specific elements including following key elements:
- Identify risks and analyze them (by sector, community, geography, etc.)
- Determine the resources required to reduce and mitigate disaster risks
- The provision of these human and financial resources and equipment by the political authority
- Developing response plans with clear tasks and roles for disaster response
- Training on joint response plans using the field event management organization framework, which we will discuss later
- Reviewing matrix programs and plans for the purpose of learning and identifying gap
- Continuous improvements
The framework defines activities and sub-national programs to achieve the previous main elements. For example, the framework requires all national institutions concerned with providing emergency services to have mutual aid agreements between the public and private sectors to assist in disaster response by providing human resources and equipment in the event of disasters.
Disaster Reduction and Mitigation Framework
This framework is concerned with developing a national scientific methodology through programs for identifying and analyzing risks in the country and developing proactive measures and laws to reduce them and mitigate their effects in the event they occur and mandate these measures on all sectors in the country to comply with and implement. The framework includes defining the methodology for protecting the state’s infrastructure from means of communication, oil and gas, electricity, water, financial, electronic security, national landmarks and the country’s political figures.
On Scene Incident Management System
This system aims to define the parameters and methods of on scene incident management in order to organize the response between the responding institutions, establish a clear command and control system of tasks and responsibilities, ensure continuous communication and effective coordination, and provide crisis management teams with information, resource requests and make informed decisions to save lives and protect responders.
National Response Framework
This framework is totally missing from region countries. It is concerned with defining the roles, tasks and responsibilities between the concerned institutions to respond to major incidents and disasters of all kinds and the coordination frameworks between them in order to avoid overlapping the powers which leads to chaos, power conflicts which increases the potential loss of lives and property.
Disaster Recovery Framework
Similar to the response framework, it is missing from region countries. This framework defines clear procedures and matrices that work to help local communities affected by disasters to return to normal life as quickly as possible by providing the following services:
- Temporary homes if required
- Financial support or easy loans for housing
- Business and corporate financial support
- Managing waste and disaster debris harmful to humans and the environment
Conclusion
What happened in Beirut is painful for all of us and may be repeated in any country in the region, but what is more painful is that it may have resulted from the negligence and absence of an integrated emergency system. It is obvious that the Lebanese state institutions did not respond to the disaster in a systematic and effective manner because of the absence of such system. Responding to such event exceeds the capabilities of emergency services due to size, extent and impacted people. Despite the size or effectiveness of the emergency response, it will never substitute a holistic emergency management system which integrate with risk management and national readiness culture