Learning from disasters
(From The Japan Times August 28 issue)

天災・人災の夏

With an airplane exploding, bridges collapsing and a nuclear plant shutting down, it has been a summer of disasters. Around the globe since May, no continent has been left untouched — whether by fire, flood, tornado, airplane crash or a collapsing mine. Disasters, clearly, do not take summer vacations. As someone said, there is no cure for nature, but neither is there for human oversight. What this summer has seen is the strongest of nature, and the weakest of human prevention.

Nature has its effects, but most horrifying disasters are stamped with human incompetence and mismanagement from beginning to end. A train derailing in the Congo, bridges collapsing in Minnesota and China, mines collapsing in Russia, China and the United States, and an airplane crashing in Brazil, not to mention one catching fire in Okinawa, are all human-made disasters from start to finish. These tragedies do not just happen; they are caused.

The annual monsoon rains in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan cannot be stopped, but are predictable. What nature wreaks, humans make worse through overbuilding, deforestation and poor construction of dams and levees. The storms this year, especially in North Korea and China, were unexpectedly severe, yet since last year, very little had been accomplished in preparation. When human preparation is in place, nature's havoc can at least be lessened.

What is the government role in all this? Apparently, making cost-cutting deals with major corporations. Mines, planes, trains and bridges are built and run by joint government-business agreements nowadays. There are laws of course, but, as in the case of the United States, where one-third of bridges have been deemed "structurally deficient," no one seems to really check.

Governments need a reminder that their prime responsibility is to provide safe, efficient and working infrastructure. It may be an overused term, but infrastructure is not an underused reality. People trust that they can drive home on bridges (one collapsed in Minneapolis), take roller coasters (one killed a woman in Osaka) and ride up escalators (one cut off the toe of a young woman in Kawasaki on Aug. 12). The lack of inspection and simple attention is not just irresponsibility; it's a crime.

Of course, responsibility takes money. A glance at budget figures, though, reveals mistaken priorities. In the United States, for example, the administration spends $ 8.6 billion a month in Iraq. The National Transportation Safety Board, which is charged with checking the country's bridges, runs on an astoundingly minimal $ 6 million per month — more than a hundred times less.

The media has a role here, too. The focus of many news organizations is on grisly shock, rather than on follow-up investigations. Long-term reports require time and effort, and do not photograph well. Though people cry over a quake-smashed house, they tend to fall asleep over the ins and outs of things like nuclear-plant inspection reports. Though in-depth reports on the larger causes of disasters and who's really to blame are tedious and often dull, a balance can be found, especially since another headlining disaster is always coming up.

Most governments do display compassion over crises, offering recovery money and rescuers. Yet they should also take time beforehand to learn from the last disaster. The International Atomic Energy Agency came to the quake-hit Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant not to impose mandates but to learn for the future. If only China had sent inspectors to the Minneapolis bridge site, it might have learned something in time to save some of the 64 people who died in the Hunan bridge collapse.

Tragedies may fade from the front pages, but their effects are devastating over the long term. Tens of thousands of people can be affected by a "simple" flood. Decades of progress can be wiped out in an afternoon. Many communities crushed by the 2004 Sumatra tsunami are just now starting to get their microeconomies running again. The ripples of any disaster spread out across larger and larger areas as the processes of globalization interconnect the world. A rising tide lifts all boats, just as a sinking one lowers them.

Floods, storms, droughts and other natural disasters are cited in the oldest written records. Yet, they remain the least solved of mankind's problems. One common goal of humanity should be to construct a common bond against nature, not against other humans. Disasters have a lot to teach; we only need to learn, and to act.

今夏は世界的に、航空事故、橋の崩落、原発の運転停止、火災、水害、竜巻、落盤などの人災、天災が続き、自然の猛威と、防災措置の不備を強く印象づけた。コンゴ共和国の列車脱線事故、米ミネソタ州の橋崩落、ロシア、中国、米国の落盤、ブラジルの航空機墜落、沖縄の航空機炎上などは人災である。

バングラデッシュ、インド、パキスタンなどのモンスーンによる豪雨は防ぐことはできないが、予想はできる。天災は、建築の密集、森林破壊、ダム、堤防の欠陥工事により、いっそうひどくなる。十分な防災措置が取られていれば、天災の被害を軽減することができる。

政府は、安全で、効率がよいインフラを整備する責任がある。橋、ジェットコースター、エスカレーターなどの安全点検の不備は、単なる無責任でなく、犯罪的である。

政府予算の優先度を誤っている場合もある。例えば、米政府は月額86億ドルもイラク戦費として支出しながら、橋の安全に責任がある国家輸送安全委員会の予算として計上しているのは、わずか月額600万ドルだ。

メディアも、事故そのものを報道するばかりでなく、深層記事で原因を追究する必要がある。

各国政府は、最近の災害から学ぶべきである。国際原子力機関(IAEA)は、震災に襲われた東京電力・柏崎刈羽原発の調査を行ったが、その目的は命令を押しつけることではなく、事故に学ぶことだった。04年のスマトラ沖地震で起きた津波で壊滅的打撃を受けた地域では、経済がようやく回復へ向かっている。グローバリゼーションで世界がつながっている状況で、災害の影響は拡大する一方だ。

世界の問題のうち、水害、台風、干ばつなどの天災は最も対応が遅れている。人類は、お互いに闘うのをやめ、災害から学び、防災のため行動すべきだ。