This plan serves to confirm the arrangements within the City of Johannesburg municipality to effectively prevent disasters from occuring and to lessen the impact of those hazards that cannot be avoided. Disaster management is a continuous and intergrated multi-sectoral and multi- disciplinary process of planning and implementation of measures aimed at disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and rehabilitation (Disaster Management Act 2002).
The preventive elements of this plan must be implemented and maintained in the city of Johannesburg Municipality whenever a major incident or disaster occurs or is threatning in its area of jurisdiction. The purpose of this plan is to outline policy and procedures for both the pro-active disaster prevention and the reactive disaster response and mitigation phases of disaster management.
Risk and vulnerabilities will determine the priorities for disaster management programmes and projects. The amount of possible benefit to be derived from a project in terms of lives protected, livelihoods secured and property or natural resources defended will be the criteria that determine priorities. In a generic sense the following physical hazards were found to pose highest risk city wide; fire risk, technological, transport, environment threats, service disruption, natural phenomena, mass events, violence and terrorism.
If a local state of disaster has been declared , the city may make regulations or issue directions or authorise the issue of directions concerning:
- The release of available resources of the city, including stores, equipment, vehicles and facilities,
- The release of personnel of the city for the performance of emergency services
- The evacuation to temporary shelters of all or parts of the population from the disaster stricken area if such action is necessary for the preservation of life.
- The regulation of traffic to, from and within the disaster stricken or threatened area.
- The maintainance or installation of temporary lines of communication to or from or within the disaster area.
- The facilitation of post disaster reconstruction, rehabilitation and recovery.
These few strategies assist and protect the public, provide relief to the public, prevent or combat disruption and deal with the destructive and other effects of the disaster. Therefore I have decided to spread the word to my community about our city's resilience plans. I have sent flyers and the word of mouth to my neighbours and sent sms messages to other members of the community. I believe by the end of the nyear they will have knowledge about their City's resilience strategy since everyone is supposed to pass on the message.
Source:
www.joburg-archive.co.za/2003/budget/idp/annex4.pdf -
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