In the immediate aftermath of a disastrous event there is always an urgent need for the government agencies and NGO organizations to provide basic needs to the affected individuals to keep them alive. The emergency relief is always food, water and shelter, and can run for a very long time or can end fairly quickly depending on the nature of the emergency and the resources at hand. In addition, the amount of time it takes a community to recover depends on the magnitude of the disaster. However, government structures in more developed countries may be better prepared for emergencies than they are in under-resourced countries.
Different disastrous events provide different challenges. De Veer (2002) posited that water provision is always a great challenge to the government and NGO organizations; the risks of transmission of waterborne or vector borne diseases are very high because human waste disposal contaminated with fecal pathogens. The environmental sanitation conditions in the affected areas are usually poor therefore provision of clean water is key to prevent the outbreak of diseases in these conditions of despair. For instance, FEMA provided 85 million liters of water, 176 million pounds of ice to the victims of hurricane Katrina (Sobel, & Leeson, 2006). These figures are staggering implying that water provision posed a challenge to the government agencies and organizations.
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Similar to water it is also costly to supply food to the victims. In the case of hurricane Katrina, USDA’s Food & Nutrition Service distributed 22 million pounds of food for the affected families (Sobel, & Leeson, 2006). Efficiently providing the victims with such large amounts of food can be a challenge.
In my personal opinion, each disaster is unique providing unique challenges. In the case of hurricane Katrina, food and water might have been the greatest challenge to government and other organizations but other disasters might provide different challenges. Therefore, depending on the disaster location, extent and the kind of disaster, any of the mentioned basic needs can pose a great challenge to the government and organizations responsible in the mitigation efforts.
References
De Veer, T. (2002). 24 Water supply in disasters and emergencies.
Sobel, R. S., & Leeson, P. T. (2006). Government's response to Hurricane Katrina: A public choice analysis. Public Choice , 127 (1-2), 55-73.
