Impediments to disaster prevention are the obstacles or abstractions that prevent the process of risk mitigation from taking place. With the increasing incidents of risks, everybody is looking for the best way to curb the serious risks that take place year in year out. Since Close to everybody is at risk and disaster may hit at any time, it is very important that we looked for the best ways to mitigate disaster. Very many of such disasters have already hit different places including the big cities not forgetting the ones that have occurred in the United States most recently (Goel, 2009). The serious disasters have always stricken because of the impediments that have prevented the precaution of such disasters before they happen. It is upon this that the paper is going to describe some of the impediments that have hindered prevention of such disasters by looking at the strategies to deal with the impediments with specific examples from stricken places.
Development is one of the impediments to disaster prevention. The big cities are always striving to ensure that there is enough room to accommodate the ever increasing number of people in those cities, with the development in mind; these cities have forgotten the probability of danger striking at any time (Levitt & Whitaker, 2009). Many cities have been constructed without looking at the possibility of any danger ahead increasing the chances of risk ahead. Big cities like the Tokyo and Mexico were constructed without thinking of any disaster to strike in the future. This has increased the chances of major earthquakes and narrowed the chances of preventing such disasters from hitting such places.
It therefore means that such cities will always be hit by such calamities with minimal or no prevention at all. If at all these cities would have been constructed with precaution, it would prevent such disasters from striking (Goel, 2009). However with such a hindrance, it is necessary that such places are keenly guarded so that people can always be notified in case of any disaster so that they can be prepared to look for refuge before it hits. In order to prevent such scenarios in the future, it is very important that the upcoming cities strictly get constructed with indications from specialists so that they do not exceed what the surface of the earth can carry that would make it difficult to curb in the future.
Very many megacities are constructed on land that is prone to serious destruction in case of any disaster. It has become a big impediment to the prevention of disaster in that, such places cannot be helped in case of a disaster; the amount of pressure alone that is exerted to such areas is big to an extent that it encourages disaster to strike without notice. It means that the density of the place is able to cause vulnerability to such dangers at any time. Taking a close look at what happened in Japan in the year 1995, it is as a result of the density that caused the serious earthquake that claimed very many lives (Shaw et al, 2009). With the high numbers of people living in such places, it even raises the vulnerability of disaster striking. The only way to help such occurrences is by preventing them from causing significant destruction. It would be very hard to prevent a natural occurrence but it is very easy to prevent the natural occurrence from causing more harm. It therefore calls for all the stakeholders to work hand in hand to prevent the high numbers and constructions in such towns.
Very many developing countries do not have facilities or permanent agencies that help in disaster or risk reduction. These countries are left to face serious problems due to their state; the most vulnerable continent in this case is the African continent that is hard hit by very many natural disasters (Levitt & Whitaker, 2009). Most countries in Africa face several rural to urban migrations that are making the urban areas densely populated increasing the chances of disaster. It is evident that in such countries, there was no proper planning and that becomes a threat in itself. The more a place is densely populated, the more it is hard hit by calamity and the more it becomes hard to rescue people or to even prevent calamity from striking. More than 900 million people live in contagious settlements; this means that people who move to cities in search for better life only find themselves settled in these contagious settlements (Goel, 2009). To prevent such hindrances to risk reduction, it is important that most governments work towards elimination of such settlements.
In conclusion, therefore, impediments to disaster prevention are largely caused by human activities, development is very important but it needs to be planned so as to reduce the chances of becoming a hindrance to the prevention of disaster. It is very hard to prevent natural occurrences from happening like no one can be able to stop an earthquake form happening. The only thing that can be done in this case is to prevent all causes of such disaster by putting in place right measures that will help to reduce the frequent occurrences of such disaster.
Reference
Goel, S. (2009). Crisis management: Master the skills to prevent disasters. New Delhi: Global India Publications.
Levitt, J. I., & Whitaker, M. C. (2009). Hurricane Katrina: America's unnatural disaster. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press.
Shaw, R., Srinivas, H., & Sharma, A. (2009). Urban Risk Reduction: An Asian Perspective. Bradford: Emerald Group Pub.
