FRONTIERS OF WATER-RELATEDDISASTER MANAGEMENT AND
THE WAY FORWARD
KEY MESSAGES FROM ADBI-ICHARM POLICY BRIEF

TABLE OF CONTENTS• Overview of Key Messages• Introduction• Principles to Address Water-Related Disaster Risk Reduction Under the COVID-19 Pandemic• Data and Disaster Risk Management• Importance of Human Capacity Development• Governance Framework• Financing

KEY MESSAGES FROM POLICY BRIEF• Effective disaster risk management (DRM) requires scaling efforts to leverage water hazard data as much as possible.
• Due to the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, disaster risk reduction has become even morechallenging.
• Human capacity development (public education and literacy, empowerment of local governments and community
leaders,and media briefings) by adequately addressing the local knowledge and wisdom is a necessity for future policy
frameworks.
• Effective disaster preparation, warning, response, and recovery are best made when local governments andorganizations work well together and coordinate with organizations on the national level.
• Effective governance is one of the most essential elements of an overall DRM strategy.
• For future dialogues, additional focus should be on identifying best practices related to using state-of-the-art technology
to enable efficient governance for DRM.

INTRODUCTION• From 2004 to 2018, Asia experienced an increase in water-related disasters and increased economic losses
compared to previous years.
• Human factors also exacerbate the effects of water-related hazards that have been intensified by climatechange.
• This complexity requires the cooperation between governments, regional and international institutions,businesses, nonprofit organizations, and individuals.
• Spread of the COVID-19 pandemic has made disaster risk reduction more challenging.

DATA AND DISASTER RISK MANAGEMENT• Water hazard data is the fundamentalbuilding block that supports all phasesof disaster risk management (DRM).
• This data is used to support both
structural and nonstructural measuresin participating countries.
• Effective DRM data management
approach should be able to handle
large volumes of a variety of data in ashort period of time.
Source: Authors

Effective DRM requires scaling efforts to leverage water hazard data as much aspossible.

IMPORTANCE OF HUMAN CAPACITYDEVELOPMENT• Human capacity development isparticularly relevant in the early
warning and response phases.
• In these phases, challenges incoordinating between governmentorganizations and departments aswell as initiating prompt responses
from those living in disaster-affectedareas remain.
Source: Authors

Human capacity development (public education and literacy, empowerment of local governments and community leaders,and media briefings) by adequately addressing the local knowledge and wisdom is a necessity for future policy frameworks.

GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK• Disaster risk reduction (DRR) requires
partnerships between various stakeholders insociety that are inclusive, accessible, and pay
attention to the most vulnerable groups.
• During a disaster, all stakeholders will have tocollect, analyze, and share information on a realtime basis.
• Effective disaster preparation, warning,response, and recovery are best made whenlocal governments and organizations work
well together and coordinate withorganizations on the national level.
Source: Authors

Effective governance is one of the most essential elements of an overall DRM strategy.

FINANCING• Financing is limited, especially in low and middle-income countries.

• There is a need to find new resources, such as private sector financing, and to maximize
returns on any investment.
• Existing financial resources should be used in a way to maximize socioeconomic returns.

• An example is to design disaster risk mitigation infrastructure projects thatserve multiple functional requirements simultaneously, which requires
functional coordination between several agencies of the government.

THANK YOU