Journal of Emergency Management最新文献

There has existed a need to increase the resilience of the drinking water supply in Makana Local Municipality in the scope of the 2018-2019 drought and the municipal water supply outages. A combination of the know-how and mandates of local government and the private water-retail sector could provide solutions. In order to achieve successful imple-mentation, the authors present here tools from the disaster risk management legislation in South Africa for operational-ization of this public-private partnership. These are tools based on Chapter 5, part 1, paragraphs 42 (1d) and Chapter 5, part 2, section/paragraph 47 (1a) i-iv of the Disaster Management Act no. 57 of 2002. Regulations for the recruitment and participation of volunteers in disaster risk management should be applied through the establishment of the volun-teer units and the component for drinking water provision. The use of volunteer units with the engagement of the private sector would provide additional tools for the implementation of the preparedness and mitigation measures for drinking water provision in Makana Local Municipality. Local solutions for increasing the resilience of drinking water provision are available and identified based on the modeling work of a container solution. Potential implementation of that con-tainer solution for increasing resilience of drinking water provision would require an investment of 6.81-13.00 percent of the 2017-2019 annual budget of Makana Local Municipality. At any given time in 2018, the probability of the emergency treatment activation would be about 33.4 percent in Makana Local Municipality. An example of the ad hoc management about the provision of borehole water from 2019 indicates that planning is critical to success of the increased resilience initiatives. Onsite storage of water during the constant supply might be necessary to ensure treatment and drinking water provision.

COVID-19's super-spread nature, its adverse impacts, and the associated public fear and panic have resulted in the use of "dangerous" substances and medicinal herbs (mismedication), particularly in rural parts of Africa. Exploring the phenomenon of mismedication is crucial for promoting effective public health policies. This study adopted a qualitative study design and purposively selected and interviewed 50 rural folks cutting across the 10 districts of Lesotho in Southern Africa. The study's findings show that rural folks perceive a high vulnerability to the COVID-19 virus. They also consider COVID-19 a dangerous virus and have high fear arousal of contracting the virus. It was realized that rural folks resort to unreliable sources of information on COVID-19 pandemic, such as friends and family members, social media, village members, and grandchildren. These untrustworthy sources spread a lot of misinformation about COVID-19, causing fear and panic among rural residents. To remedy the spread of the pandemic, its impact, and the underlying public fear and panic, rural dwellers have resorted to the use of unapproved medicinal plants. Trust in unapproved medicinal plants influences rural dwellers' compliance to the standard protocols implemented to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The study recommends the urgent need to intensify scientific investigation into the various medicinal plants for their efficacy, side effects, preparation, and approved dosage. Again, effective public education on the efficacy and dangers associated with the use of unapproved medications must be strengthened, particularly in rural communities through the active participation of opinion, traditional, and religious leaders.

Online tools such as Google Trends and search volume trackers provide potential low-cost methods to evaluate the interest of the public in the current topics once a disaster strikes. A low-cost plugin is available commercially to extract the public interest data from Google and it is tested in this letter to the editor. The plugin was used to assess the time trends in the South African public's interest in working from home which became a relevant topic during the COVID-19 lockdowns. Results of the data extraction and analysis are presented and potential applications in emergency management are proposed.

The international rescue response to natural hazards, which has frequently drawn the attention of the international community, is a very important part of the international humanitarian assistance system. This paper focuses on the international rescue response mechanism, which is under the United Nations (UN) framework, and trends in its devel-opment. Referencing the international rescue response mechanism, this paper analyzes the overall characteristics of the humanitarian response mechanism under the UN framework, and its main components, basic procedures, quality guarantee, and support of the international rescue response mechanism. In view of the international rescue develop-ment, this paper reviews the development history and the strategic plan from 2021 to 2026. From the authors' point of view, in the next development period, the international rescue community should pay more attention on building Urban Search and Rescue team's capacity at different levels and standards, ready to respond to different kinds of disasters with flexible modules, establishing deeper and more extensive partnerships during the preparedness phase. We hope to provide a foundation for broader and deeper discussions in this field.