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Project: ACP-EU Disaster Risk Reduction in Eight Pacific ACP States

Sunday, 27 June 2010 16:25 administrator
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Disaster Risk Reduction in Eight Pacific ACP States (2007-2013)

The Disaster Risk Reduction in Eight Pacific ACP States project was a Multi-Country project funded by the European Union under the 9th EDF with a budget totalling €9.26 million. The participating countries included the Federated States of Micronesia, Marshall Islands, Nauru, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Tuvalu. The project commenced on 1st October 2007 and was completed in 2013.

The overall objective of the project was poverty alleviation and sustainable development through disaster risk reduction.

The project's purpose was to build resilience in selected communities to reduce the risk to Pacific Island communities to disasters targeting two specific areas:

  • Access to Safe Drinking Water – The Regional Action Plan on Sustainable Water Management identifies the vulnerability of water resources and water supply systems to climatic hazards and proposes approaches to mitigate against these risks. Low lying islands are vulnerable to climatic variability due to lack of natural ground water storage. In islands that have sufficient supply maintaining the quality of drinking water is important for rural communities. Measures for water sustainability, land use, sanitation, wastewater and solid waste disposal are important factors in determining appropriate solutions.
  • Emergency Communications and Emergency Operation Centres – The Regional Framework for Action 2005 – 2015 Building the Resilience of Nations and Communities to Disasters, calls for planning for effective preparedness, response and recovery with key actions to establish functional emergency communications systems and emergency operations centres (EOC). The Framework calls for establishment of an effective, integrated and people-focused early warning system. In many of the participating countries early warning systems lack basic equipment, skills and resources. The weakest element is in the dissemination of warnings and the preparedness of the communities to respond.

This project is now complete.



Last Updated on Thursday, 05 February 2015 07:03  


Newsflash

Thursday 19 September 2013, Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), Suva, Fiji – On 19 September, guest lecturer Dr. Tom Durrant of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology presented his wave modelling research to students at USP Marine Science Campus. This new research provides a better understanding of ocean wave movements across the Pacific and will be used by SPC’s Applied Geoscience and Technology (SOPAC) Division to enhance development planning and disaster management in the region.

According to Durrant, “Waves and wave climate have significant implications for coastal security, marine resources, and alternative energy options. Waves on the ocean, Durrant explained, range in period from tidal waves, with periods of 12 and 24 hours, to Tsunamis, with periods around 15 minutes, to wind driven waves with periods of around 2 to 20 seconds.

In the case of wind driven waves, the focus of Durrant's work,  the longer the wind blows over a greater area, the bigger the waves. Pacific Islands are affected not only by local, short period, wind-generated waves but also by long period swells generated by far away storms.

Long period swell waves are fast-moving waves caused by distant storms that can pile up when they reach land. Such waves have caused widespread flooding, damage and loss of life in the Pacific, for example, in the Mortlock Islands of Papua New Guinea in 2009 and in the Marshall Islands in 2012. “These events haven’t been studied much because of lack of data,” said Durrant.

To this end, Durrant has been working under the AusAid-funded Pacific and Australia Climate Change Science and Adaptation Planning (PACCSAP) Programme to develop wave models for the Pacific that can in turn be used to assess wave-induced coastal inundation events in detail.