Topic 4: Recovery principles and concepts
Defining recovery
Pakistan Flood Victims Access Safe Drinking Water
A mother gives her child a bowl of clean water in Charsarda District, in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Province, an area severely affected by monsoon floods. The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) is providing safe drinking water to flood victims in accessible areas of the province.
Source: UN Photo/UNICEF/ZAK; 11 August 2010; Charsarda, Pakistan; Photo #443538 www.unmultimedia.org/photo/ accessed September 2010
Recently there has been a huge emphasis on continuity planning and disaster recovery within the community and business environments. A simple web search reveals the vast numbers of continuity plans and consultants that are currently available. For example, look at the following excerpts:
Business Continuity: a system of planning for, recovering and maintaining both the IT and business environments within an organization regardless of the type of interruption. In addition to the IT infrastructure, it covers people, facilities, workplaces, equipment, business processes, and more.
Disaster Recovery: the process of restoring and maintaining the data, equipment, applications and other technical resources on which a business depends.
These definitions are located at: http://www.ecu.edu/cs-itcs/itsecurity/itdrp/itdrp-terminology.cfm
Whatever your role within the recovery context, you will be concerned with the way that recovery is defined within a disaster context. The following definitions are provided to motivate your thinking.
Recovery definitions
WFP Reaches Flood Victims in Punjab Province, Pakistan
Flood victims in Rahim Yar Khan, a city in the south of Punjab Province, Pakistan, receive rations from the UN World Food Programme (WFP), including wheat flour. It is estimated 17 million people in Pakistan have been affected by monsoon floods, the worst natural disaster in the nation's history.
Source: UN Photo/WFP/Amjad Jamal;15 August 2010; Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan; Photo #444166 www.unmultimedia.org/photo/ accessed September 2010
Recovery is the process by which an affected community is assisted in regaining a proper level of functioning following a disaster. It comprises initial recovery, which satisfies personal and community needs and restores services to the level where Local Government and the normal responsible agencies can manage the continuing process. It also includes long term recovery, reconstruction and rehabilitation measures. The Natural Disaster Relief Arrangements, administered by the Federal Government, provide funding assistance to States and Territories aimed at alleviating the financial burden associated with the provision of natural disaster relief payments and infrastructure restoration.
Source: QLD Government State Disaster Management Group www.disaster.qld.gov.au/management/response.asp accessed September 2010
Recovery is the coordinated efforts and processes to effect the immediate, medium and long term holistic regeneration of a community following a disaster.
Recovery is a developmental and remedial process encompassing the following activities:
- minimizing the escalation of the consequences of a disaster;
- regeneration of the social, emotional, economic and physical wellbeing of individuals and communities;
- taking opportunities to adapt to meet the social, economic, natural and built environments future needs; and
- reducing future exposure to hazards and their associated risks.
The establishment of recovery activity begins immediately after the impact of an event and works in parallel with response activities.