TodaysNetworkNews: HAITI: U.N. DISASTER REDUCTION AGENCY: SALVANO BRICENO (UNTV)

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• published: 14 Jan 2010
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TodaysNetworkNews: 13 January 2010: UNTV: Port-au-Prince, Haiti - The Director of the UN Disaster Reduction Agency Salvano Briceno says that in the aftermath of relief and rescue operations, Haiti has to immediately give a priority to "risk reduction" in order to prepare to future disasters. A massive 7.0-magnitude earthquake has struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti. The extent of the devastation is still unclear but there are fears thousands of people may have died. SOUNDBITE (English) Salvano Briceno, Director of the UN Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR): We know the UN Building is partially destroyed, most of the UN staff are accounted for, were still waiting to hear for others, but there is already an operation going on to provide relief, both by the UN, but also in coordination with the major NGOs and Governments that are offering assistance. The ISDR aims at building disaster resilient communities by promoting increased awareness of the importance of disaster reduction as an integral component of sustainable development, with the goal of reducing human, social, economic and environmental losses due to natural hazards and related technological and environmental disasters. SOUNDBITE (English) Salvano Briceno, Director of the UN Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR): The major problem of course is that Haiti is extremely poor, its poverty that is at the core of all of these disasters. An earthquake like this or a hurricane like the ones that hit Haiti do not cause the same damage to other countries, even very close countries like Cuba, Jamaica or the Dominican Republic. They are also hit by hurricanes every year; they dont have casualties while Haiti has thousands of casualties. Haiti's worst quake in two centuries hit south of the capital Port-au-Prince on Tuesday, wrecking the presidential palace, UN HQ and other buildings. A number of nations, including the US, UK and Venezuela, are gearing up to send relief and rescue teams SOUNDBITE (English) Salvano Briceno, Director of the UN Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR): The main need is relief, rescuing and searching for people that are trapped and to get as many survivors as possible. But immediately Haiti has to give a priority to disaster risk reduction, to reduce risk. This has to be in the legislation, in the policy, its not just relief. The problem is once the relief operation has passed, Governments tend to forget and then to just prepare for the next disaster, for the relief of the next disaster, and not to reduce the risk. Haiti has a long history of natural disasters including four hurricanes and resulting floods in 2008 which killed hundreds left tens of thousands of people homeless. SOUNDBITE (English) Salvano Briceno, Director of the UN Inter-Agency Secretariat of the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR): Disaster Risk Reduction which is a much longer term effort has started already in Haiti for several months, but these are efforts that take a long time and therefore it was just the beginning. It was encouraged by former President Bill Clinton, who as you know is Special Envoy to Haiti, we worked with him when he was a special envoy for the Tsunami and we have a colleague there with whom we spoke already and hes OK. And this program aims at identifying the vulnerabilities that are the origins of these disasters." The quake, which struck about 15km (10 miles) south-west of Port-au-Prince, was quickly followed by two strong aftershocks of 5.9 and 5.5 magnitude. The tremor hit at 1653 (2153 GMT) on Tuesday, the US Geological Survey said. Phone lines to the country failed shortly afterwards. .................................................................................... ( UNITED NATIONS TELEVISION: UNTV ) ....................................................................................TodaysNetworkNews: SEE: http://www.TodaysNetworkNews.com GLOBAL NEWS NETWORK FOR BREAKING INTERNATIONAL NEWS, OPINION, VIDEO AND TELEVISION by Internationally Accredited News Journalists ........................................................................................................................................................................