Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR)
[pic]Disaster risk reduction is aimed at preventing new and reducing existing disaster risk and managing residual risk, all of which contribute to strengthening resilience and therefore to the achievement of sustainable development(UNDRR).
Our main work over the years had focused on disaster risk preparedness through helping local communities to be aware of existing hazards in their communities and to prevent the generation of new risk while on the alert on possibility of occurrence of disaster especially in situation where prevention is not possible but efforts needed to ensure zero loss of human life and limited destruction of property should an incident occur.
Cameroon is vulnerable to different types of hazards and faces both minor and major disasters resulting from natural and anthropogenic causes. Over 50% of disasters in the country are linked to the existence of a geological feature called the Cameroon volcanic line (CVL).
The CVL is an intraplate volcanic chain made up of 12 volcanic centers with a number of active volcanic activities over the decades such as the mount Cameroon eruptions. Ecological disasters resulting from deforestation are on the rise and have the potential to affect more people in the future. Of the five ecological zones in the country, some of the zones are more vulnerable to climatic threats resulting from global climate change. The Northwest region, west, northern and far north regions are particularly susceptible to increase climatic risk.
Common disasters in the country include mass movements (landslides, rockslides and mudflows) earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, gas emission from lakes, drought, and violent winds(gales, storms), desertification, floods, epidemics(cholera and meningitis) and accident which has been in the rise in the country due to several factors including poor public infrastructures, road users behaviors, vehicles in poor states etc.
The pattern of vulnerability affecting communities in the country are linked to hazards occurrences but perhaps more importantly vulnerability linked to the institutional and socio-economic context for hazards prevention, mitigation and response.