Disaster recovery is a post-disaster phase of the disaster management cycle. It entails helping individuals, communities, businesses and organisations return to pre-disaster status or a new normal depending on the impact of the disaster.
Disaster recovery can take years, or even decades, depending on the nature of the disaster as it encompasses stabilising disaster areas and restoring all essential community services such as potable water supply, housing, utilities, transportation, medical facilities, grants for community members to restart entrepreneurial undertakings and restore their livelihoods, among other things.
The disaster recovery response is normally informed by a post-disaster needs assessment (PDNA). A post disaster needs assessment evaluates the physical damages and economic losses and identifies human recovery needs based on information obtained from the affected population.
Specifically, PDNA involves context analysis, assessment of disaster effects, assessment of disaster impacts, definition of recovery needs and development of a recovery strategy or plan.
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The immediate effects of a disaster manifest through loss of life, destruction of physical capital (eg housing, commercial buildings, roads), population displacement and disruption of economic activity. Disaster effects cut across productive, social, infrastructure as well as crosscutting sectors.
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In productive sectors such as agriculture, disasters result in losses in crop production, washed away animals in case of floods, destruction of irrigation infrastructure, livestock and fisheries infrastructure, among other important assets. This is true with the industry and trading sector, which may suffer due to damage to shops, makeshift market structures and other commercial establishments.
Social sectors such as education and health suffer damage, too, notably schools (mainly primary and secondary schools), health centres, with the rural setting suffering the most due to poor infrastructure and inappropriate siting. Also common are cases of partial or complete destruction of housing units. Most houses that suffer complete destruction are traditional houses constructed mainly in rural areas with limited land use planning and little compliance with safer house design standards.
In terms of infrastructure, damage to the transport sector happens in countless ways. For instance, this can be through the destruction of physical assets that include bridges, drifts, roads, culverts and water supply facilities, hydrometric stations and dams.
Dykes, which are erected for river bank protection, early warning systems, hydrological as well as meteorological stations may also suffer. In terms of gender, disasters have different impacts on women, girls, boys and men as they have different capacities to respond and cope with disasters and emergency situations.
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Disaster recovery strategies, or plans, should take into consideration that disaster effects cut across sectors, hence the need to advance an inclusive approach. This implies that disaster recovery interventions must go beyond construction and rehabilitation of physical structures and inculcate capacity building as well as facilitate economic activities by, among other things, providing grants and loans to micro, small and medium enterprises.
Also key to disaster recovery interventions are practices, regulations and policies that reduce vulnerability and enhance coping capacity, hence building resilient communities.
There are always competing sectoral recovery interventions, despite resource constraints. This calls for effective coordination, especially by government, and prioritisation of the interventions. For instance, prioritisation of disaster recovery interventions may consider the potential to generate sustainable livelihoods, restoration and rebuilding of critical infrastructure and services, a focus on pro-poor and pro-vulnerable interventions— the most hit by the disaster— potential for direct and wide humanitarian impact, balance between public and private sector recovery, and those showing a balance between physical infrastructure reconstruction and less visible recovery, among others.
In conclusion, disasters reflect people’s vulnerability or their susceptibility to be affected when confronted with floods, cyclones, volcanic eruptions, landslides or other potentially harmful phenomena. Similarly, people are often resilient and able to overcome the havoc of disasters should recovery policies consider their needs and contributions as it promotes community participation, ownership and empowerment. Government-led coordination is key to effective implementation of disaster recovery and reconstruction programmes to ensure consistency in results delivery as well as coordinated and targeted efforts to meet needs and address gaps. The prioritising and sequencing of needs and recovery interventions across sectors must take into account a distinction between what is urgent and what is important.
