Preface

Two experiences inspired us to begin writing Volume 17. The first experience was when we met a man in the upper river basin in Cartago, Costa Rica – this man appears in Chapter 5. He and his family owned a small farm that produced potatoes and onions with other neighborhood families. He observed precipitation data three times a day using a simple plastic pluviometer provided by the national disaster risk management authority. He recorded the data daily on a sheet prepared by the authority and submitted it periodically. The data was analyzed by the authority and used for the early warnings to the lower river basin of the city. We were curious because it was a laborious task collecting the data three times daily and in the same place for over a decade. So, when we visited him with a staff of the national authority, we asked him why he did such. His reply was simple and clear “I want to help even the illegal families in the lower river basin to prepare for any future floods.” He knew the illegal communities in the lower river basin were a great problem for the city’s local socio-economic development. Even though, he wanted to contribute to the people living in the lower river basin.

The second experience was when we met a housewife in a poor community in Chinandega, Honduras – this episode is covered in Chapter 2. She was a temporal local government officer and participated in a small project which elaborated on the community flood evacuation plan. When we visited her – her home looked humble, yet she was proud. She said “I enjoyed participating in the project; even poor women, children, old, educated or not, disabled and migrants, every person can participate in it. I want to help the community when floods occur; even poor people like me want to help and not just receive.”

“I want to help even illegal families” and “even poor people like me want to help and not just receive” made us rethink whether national and local authorities knew these realities existed. This volume discusses effective approaches to enhance local disaster risk management (DRM) capacity of developing countries to combat increasing climate disaster impacts, especially taking advantage of the community’s good will as witnessed in Cartago and Comayagua.

This book could not have been accomplished without the support from Professor David Smith, Director of the Disaster Risk Reduction Program at the National University in Costa Rica and his team, Rebeca Lazo, Juan Carlos Zamora, and Nancy Nunes, researchers of the university, who provided helpful technical support for the fieldworks. Additionally, we would like to express thanks to Mr. Douglas Salgado, director of the Department of Information Management of the National Emergency Commission (CNE), who invited us to Cartago to share the aforementioned experiences. We hope this volume will provide ideas and lessons on local disaster risk management with community participation.

Tsuneki Hori

Rajib Shaw