Know Risk

"It was published during a world conference on disaster reduction in 2005 in Japan and it is regarded as the global document on disaster reduction. Its format is very useful – it’s possible to browse both by country and theme. Support Five Books Five Books interviews are expensive to produce. If you're enjoying this interview, please support us by donating a small amount . Know Risk is a large book – it contains almost 200 articles, which were written by highly qualified professionals. As well as describing their experiences in disaster recovery, the book also contains many arguments about how to increase the effectiveness of disaster reduction policies. It is unfortunate that on the whole, government policy-makers tend to regard death by military means as more significant than death by a natural disaster, yet both involve the same concept of human security. Globally, a vast amount of money is spent on building military capacity, and the amount that is spent on preventing disasters is peanuts in comparison. Governments throughout the world must acknowledge that human security should not simply be understood from a political perspective. The state ought to protect the health and life of its citizens from both military attacks and natural disasters. It is within our rights to demand this be done. The disaster that I found the most complex and the one that touched me the most was the tsunami – specifically in Jaffna, Sri Lanka. The community was facing conflict when the tsunami hit and though a ceasefire was declared immediately afterwards, due to political constraints aid wasn’t able to reach Jaffna. I went in by military plane and saw a truly terrible situation. A doctor told me that an older brother and his sister had been playing by the seashore when the tsunami hit. The sister died and the boy’s parents accused him of not taking care of her and said that she died as a result of his negligence. Over and over they repeated this to the 11-year-old boy, who ultimately lost control. Later it was discovered that he became a soldier for LTTE [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam]. Sadly, you will find this kind of story all over the world. No. It is a much safer place than before in terms of disaster risk. This is due to the international system that has been set up over time. Historically, when disasters occurred, it was the epidemics afterwards that killed more people than the disaster itself. The lack of medicine was critical. Nowadays, disasters do not occur without a strong response from the government and NGOs. Get the weekly Five Books newsletter However earthquakes pose a greater threat in modern times because we have more buildings and they are made out of heavy, dense material, with many people living in tightly packed cities. In countries such as Iran , experts have proposed that the capital be moved to a safer location, as Tehran lies across hundreds of fault lines. One of the reasons why I am writing a book about the Great Indian Earthquake of 1897 – which killed around 2,500 people but for aforementioned reasons would kill millions today – is to remind people in my own country of Bangladesh that an earthquake can occur in this region and that we are not at all prepared for the devastating impact it will have."