Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
9746
Finance and Budgeting
No urban government has all the resources it needs to reduce risks from extreme
natural events so it usually necessary to establish priorities as to what types of im-
provements are needed, and in what order. Once this has been settled it is neces-
sary to create
adequate and dedicated budgets
to ensure they can be implemented.
Another problem is that there are usually more funds available for post-disaster
recovery than for pro-active approaches to reduce the risk of disasters from natural
hazards. As noted above this is because of the budget emphasis on immediate prob-
lems—not on events that seem in the distant future. The source of funds also varies.
Usually local taxes are too small for the demands of risk management policies,
or for post-disaster relief, so urban centres have to depend more on funding from
higher levels of government. However, there are increasing attempts to get private
firms to provide specialist personnel or materials for disaster projects, and even
finance—at least for projects in their immediate surroundings—for if government-
run schemes break down, their business may suffer badly.
In the case of developing countries many urban places now obtain funds, or ex-
pertise in terms of advice and technical assistance, from international non-govern-
ment aid agencies, although these are often for specific projects. The way that the
national government money for these risk reduction schemes is allocated also var-
ies. Some have dedicated funds supplied to a specific agency that manages various
disaster strategies; others have specific line-items for such uses in the budgets of
existing departments; even more have aspects of both systems. There is probably no
one right way to budget for disasters, given the very different levels of both prepa-
ration and hazards faced by various urban places. However, a separate budget for
the agency charged with disaster risk management is probably the most appropriate
one, since it does not have to compete with demands from other functions in various
departments, which may be subject to reduced funding if the anticipated risks do not
materialize. It is worth remembering that many risk reduction schemes have been
the subject of criticism when their facilities were not used. For example, the Win-
nipeg Floodway that was described earlier was often ridiculed as Duff's Ditch—a
term derived from the Premier of the province, Duff Roblin, who implemented the
project—and was seen by many as an expensive folly. But the relatively low flood
levels of most of the 1970s and 80s did not last; in the last two decades extremely
high floods have occurred and the value of the diversion channel was shown.
In the Philippines a series of bad floods in cities led to a new 2010 Disaster Man-
agement Act. This ensured that risk management budgets allocated to local govern-
ments were not used for other purposes, as it mandated local governments to spend
5 % of their budget on disaster prevention or relief. In addition, it made the rare deci-
sion to allow a larger proportion (70 %) to be available for risk reduction schemes,
and the rest for post-disaster relief. In this latter case there is little doubt that if an
urban place is affected by an extreme natural event the local ability to finance relief
operations is far too limited to be effective. Hence higher levels of government and
international organizations have to step in, although in most of the former cases
there has to a declaration by the national government that a disaster has occurred
