“Empowering Communities: Strategies for Effective Disaster Preparedness and Resilience”….

Causes of Landslides

1. Natural Causes:

Heavy Rainfall and Flooding: That is by soaking the soil and weakening it to the extent that the ground becomes unstable in nature.

Earthquakes and Seismic Activity: Moves and shakes and removes the rocks and the soil.

Volcanic Eruptions: It forms loose volcanic ash that tends to lead to occurrences of landslides.

Snowmelt: Due to the fast rate of melting, the water contributes to the soil and reduces it strength.

– Weathering and Erosion: Slow denudation or wearing away of the slopes by constant processes of weathering and corrosion.

– Slope Topography and Vegetation Loss: Skymer further classified fascism into six levels where steep slopes and regions with low vegetation cover are most affected.

1. Human-induced Causes:

– Deforestation: That means once the trees are removed, the roots will not be anchored to the soils making the slopes insecure.

– Construction Activities: Road constructions, constructions of buildings, and construction of dams upset the state of balance of the slopes and thus become instable.

– Mining and Quarrying: Blasting and excavation have detrimental effects on support systems on slopes.

– Bad Agricultural Practices: If not checked or controlled Shifting cultivation or terracing will lead to weakness to slopes

– Climate Change: Brings the likelihood of the intensity of the rainfall which could trigger landslides to happen more frequent.

Effects of Landslides

1. Human Casualties and Injuries: Such landslides are well evidenced mobile often causing loss of lives and serious injuries.

Economic Loss: Waste property and roads, infrastructures agricultural lands & forests let unfathomable financial damage.

Environmental Impact: The landslide results in such consequences as disturbance of the existing ecosystem, loss of homes as well as may result in furthering soil erosion and thus river sedimentation which might culminate in quality water issues.

Infrastructure Damage: It is very likely that the formation of land slide will damage the roads, bridges and constructions needed for transport and communication.

Displacement of Communities: Landslide requires people to be shuffled, resulting to a disruption of their income source and psychosocial disruption.

1. Service Disruptions: Basic services such as; water, power and telephone may be cut off due to destruction of infrastructure.

The above elements makes up the compact that is the National Risk Management Strategy.

The National Risk Management Strategy creates capacity and anticipates how to manage natural disasters. Major elements would include;

1. Risk Assessment and Mapping: Geographic categorisation of high-risk locations to get insight into hazardous areas for making an effective risk management plan.
2. Early Warning Systems: Technologies and forecast and warning systems that would produce an early signal to vulnerable communities.
3. Community Awareness and Education: Awareness creation, whereby training to the communities about the possible landslides and the measures they should take when they see them.
4. Resilience in Infrastructure: Effective construction and design of roads, bridges and buildings which resist the threat of landslides and other related calamities.
5. Ecosystem-Based Approaches: Methods that were considered in the reestablishment of slopes that are within the natural technique include reforestation vegetation cover.
6. Policy and legal framework: Prescription of measures controlling road construction, human settlement, the kinds of undertaking allowed on a piece of land, and reforestation to prevent man-made landslides.
7. Pre-disaster preparedness and response planning: Further the response plan for landslides must consider evacuation plan and or response readiness of the emergency services.
8. Research and development: On the successful completion of the program, the following contribution shall have been made By the candidate towards research in causation prediction and prevention of landslides in order to influence policies and advice on mitigation methods.
9. Financial resource and risk transfer mechanisms: promote insurance, funds or incentives that aid to regain the affected community and pass some of the risk associated with landslides.

This strategy will try to make efforts in reestablishment of balance between readiness and recovery as will strive to mitigate effects of landslides for a quick and efficient bounce back.