Navigation path
Additional tools
A lesson of our world’s fragility – my impressions from Brazzaville
Monday, March 5th, 2012
I am just back from Brazzaville, where I walked through the ruins of Mpila. This was the densely populated neighbourhood which took the brunt of the massive explosions which rocked the Congolese Republic’s capital on Sunday.
The scenes of devastation were dramatic. Houses had collapsed like decks of cards, destroying everything and everybody within. People were gathering up what personal belongings they could salvage. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3314
I met Rahi Harouna when she was making an important life decision – and getting moral support from what many may regard as a surprising source.
Rahi, a 38-year-old mother of five children, was at a health centre run by the aid agency Concern and funded by the European Commission in the village of Bambey, Niger. Read the full entry
Number of views: 1677
In my work as Commissioner for crisis response, I often face the type of news that we hope never to face. A month ago I had a moment like this. Japan was hit by one of the strongest earthquakes in history; cities and lives were shredded by the tsunami that followed; and as if that was not enough, the nuclear meltdown cast a shadow of unimaginable danger.
Every day in the past four weeks brought a new twist and turn in this tragedy Read the full entry
Number of views: 4053
At Kitaibaraki’s port, boats sit atop each other, next to a two-storey-high pile of cars. The clock at the port’s main office has stopped at 14:48, the time the tsunami hit two weeks ago. In this surreal landscape, the Governor of Ibaraki prefecture, Masaro Hashimoto and I are talking to local fishermen. They are eager to see the port brought back to life, but worry about the news from Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant – it is just 70 km from their town, and radiation scare is shutting down the markets for their catch. The fishermen fear that although the rubble will be cleared, the scare will kill their livelihoods. Read the full entry
Number of views: 3457
When at midnight on December 31st we crossed over from the old into the New Year, I prayed for kindness – of men and nature. I prayed for a better year, and a better decade.
The year we left behind was really tough. I will remember it as the first in my lifetime the world suffered two mega disasters, the earthquake in Haiti and the floods in Pakistan. 2010 wrote many entries in the record books of disasters; they claimed thousands of lives, reduced to rubble millions of livelihoods and inflicted damage worth billions of euros.
Just days into 2010, Haiti was devastated by the second most destructive earthquake in recorded history, which was later followed by cholera epidemics. An even stronger (although luckily less destructive) earthquake hit Chile. An Icelandic volcano eruption caused an unprecedented airspace closure in Europe. The United States suffered the greatest environmental catastrophe in its history after the oil rig explosion in the Mexican gulf. In Russia and Israel, forest fires burned at a scale unseen before. Droughts in Africa put millions of people in new risk of starvation. Floods swept through parts of Colombia, India and Bangladesh and covered a fifth of Pakistan’s territory. Political instability claimed victims in Kirgizstan and the Ivory Coast. Alongside these new disasters, there were dozens of protracted humanitarian crises where people kept perishing and livelihoods remained precarious in 2010 – Sudan, Congo, Yemen, Saharawi.
But 2010 also brought a very important message: despite economic hardship at home, we in Europe kept our promise to stand by those in the direst need. We mobilised rescue missions and raised money, and thus saved lives. One of the most precious memories I keep from last year is this of Laoure, a baby I met in Niger, who could have starved to death had it not been for Europe’s food assistance. There were thousands of stories like Laoure’s, in Haiti, in Pakistan, in Darfur. These stories give me hope for the future.
The New Year began – with an earthquake in Chile and floods in Australia. Luckily, neither claimed many victims. So maybe the prayer works?
Whatever the answer, I promise you to go beyond prayers. We hope for the best, but we prepare for the worst, and will stick together to face the challenges 2011 may bring.
I wish you all the best: good health, good luck, and fewer crisis stories from your humanitarian aid commissioner in 2011.
Number of views: 3928
Bad luck comes in threes, they say, and this is clearly the case in Haiti. As if the earthquake and hurricane were not enough, Haitians are now struggling with a cholera epidemics too. It already killed 1,100 people, while at least 18,400 are treated in hospitals. I worry the situation is going to get worse before it gets better.
Healthcare in Haiti has been under severe stress since the earthquake of last January. Read the full entry
Number of views: 2931
Hungary: the colours after disaster
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
I had long planned a visit to Hungary, to discuss my policy proposal for strengthening our disaster response with the upcoming EU Presidency. Then, the accident in Ajka happened, and response to this specific disaster took central stage. The place to talk about it was not a conference room, but the affected area, still covered in sludge.
Once we entered the Veszprém county, the gentle colours of autumn that rolled past the car windows were replaced by one colour – red. This is the colour of the mud that had spilled from the reservoir of the Ajka factory, and swept through the fields, yards and houses.
Two weeks after the disaster struck, killing nine people and injuring more than a hundred, this colour still dominates the landscape, painting a bizarre picture of red rivers, red roads, red-coated earth. But this is not a Martian landscape or a chaotic situation – red mud certainly does not paint the whole picture on the ground.
White is the other colour that has infused that area, after the red deluge. This is the colour of the protective overalls worn by recovery workers. These white figures have spent much of the past two weeks in the red mud, preventing the sludge from spilling into more lives, rivers and fields, and planning the next steps toward a comprehensive rehabilitation programme.
An enormous amount of work has been done in this white effort to neutralise the red. Hundreds of people were evacuated to safety; reinforcements were built to contain further spills (which luckily did not happen); rigorous chemical probes were taken from water, soil and air; heavy duty machines were brought in to clear the debris.
The problems are hardly over, but thanks to the fast and concerted initial reaction, at the moment the situation is under control, and the Hungarian authorities are beginning the second phase of disaster management – recovery. I am optimistic that another colour will soon come after the red and the white – green, just like in the Hungarian flag. The green of recovering nature, and renewed hope.
Number of views: 2983
Today is Disaster Reduction Day. Today is also a day when we are dealing with a disaster here, in the European Union – the environmental catastrophe in Western Hungary, caused by a serious industrial accident.
Managing the aftermath of a disaster like this has four phases. First, there is the immediate reaction, aimed at mitigation of the consequences for people and nature. This is where Hungary is at this moment, its authorities working around the clock to rescue lives, relocate people, diminish the inflow of red sludge in waterways and prevent further damage.
Hungary is not alone in this moment of duress. As soon as it requested help, the European Union answered with an international team of five experts. As I write this, they are on the ground, working with their Hungarian counterparts, under coordination by one of my colleagues from the EU Monitoring and Information Centre (MIC).
Number of views: 4075
