Water

Water Champion: Kuniyoshi Takeuchi
Managing Disasters through Knowledge and Localism
October 2008

By: Ma. Christina Dueñas
Water Knowledge and Communications Coordinator, ADB

Dr. Kuniyoshi Takeuchi is the Director of the recently established International Center for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) at Japan’s Public Works Research Institute.

ICHARM is a timely idea given that water disasters around the globe are increasing more than ever and climate change is exacerbating their severity. Established in Japan in March 2006, and supported by 191 members of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) and other national and international organizations, ICHARM was designed to serve as center of excellence on water disaster risk management. Its initial focus is flood-related disasters, including flash-floods, landslides, debris flows, storm surges, and tsunamis. ICHARM’s main activities center on research, capacity development, and information networking.

Dr. Takeuchi was tapped as the first director of ICHARM in 2006. In the years leading up to his appointment, Dr. Takeuchi served as professor of hydrology and water resources for 30 years at Japan’s Yamanashi University. He was also heavily involved in UNESCO’s International Hydrological Programme (IHP), a scientific program on water research, water resources management, education, and capacity-building. His involvement included stints in Southeast Asia and the UNESCO headquarters, plus the chairpersonship of the IHP Inter-Governmental Council from 1998 to 2000. From 2000 to the present, Prof. Takeuchi has been chairing the Japan IHP National Committee. From 2000-2004, he served as the President of International Association of Hydrological Sciences (IAHS), the oldest professional society on hydrology, and started a science program on Predictions in Ungaged Basins (PUB), an IAHS initiative for the decade of 2003-2012, aimed at uncertainty reduction in hydrological practice.

Have you personally felt the impact of water disasters?

I was born in Kyoto near the Kamo River. It was there that I swam, caught fish, and enjoyed myself with neighborhood friends. Kamo River had a very high flow one day and wiped everything away from the floodplain, including the various vegetables my father planted. I’ve never forgotten the angry, growling flow I saw and heard then as our neighborhood lined up atop the levee.

What have been the worst water-related disasters in the region in the past decades?

It is unfortunate, but there have been too many. The 1991 storm surge in Bangladesh took 140,000 human lives away. The 1998 China flood also caused economic losses of roughly USD 30 billion. The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami was the worst disaster, taking more than 220,000 lives away. And the 2008 Cyclone Nargis that hit Myanmar, taking 150,000 lives, had man-made amplifications.

How did the way these disasters were managed contribute to the end results?

In Myanmar’s case, if the government had accepted international help, the death toll would have been much smaller. This was an extreme case highlighting the fact that poor governance is linked to catastrophic disasters.

On the other hand, the preparedness for the 2007 Cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh was a success story. The hazard was as strong as the 1991 case, but the death toll was only 3,000, mainly due to early warnings and shelters built on the coast. Similarly, China’s 1998 flood was as large as the 1931 and 1954 floods, which killed more than 145,000 and 33,000 people, respectively, in the Yangtze basin, but took only about 1,000 lives. This was the result of long-term investment to flood management works.

What are the most common mistakes governments make about managing water-related disasters?

Decision makers do not pay enough attention to preparedness for disaster mitigation. In most cases, they only become active after a disaster occurs. Land use management would significantly help as this enables them to select and lead people to safer locations and habitation.

In the coming years, more urban concentration creates more slums with unsafe conditions, which can make disasters more devastating. Decision makers should take stock of this and prepare accordingly.

What does increasing urbanization mean for disaster preparedness and mitigation?

Today’s urban centers are typically over crowded, industrialized with electronic and centralized systems, filled with valuable goods, properties and infrastructure, and has weak community ties. These make them vulnerable to natural hazards.

Taking these traits into account, the towns should adopt an approach that fosters self-help and mutual help in times of disasters. They should also incorporate integrated flood management into their Integrated Water Resources Management plans so that land, water, transportation, energy, environment, and other sectors are designed in an efficient and holistic manner.

Why is ICHARM principally focusing on flood-related disasters?

Because they cause the largest human and economic losses compared with any other natural disaster. Eventually, we hope to introduce integrated flood management, which should guide all sectors to work together towards establishing a disaster resilient society.

We believe in human resources as the starting point for any practical activity against disaster risks, so we’re steadily building the capacity of national and local agencies with training and consultations, which includes introducing them to state-of-the-art flood forecasting systems.

What major challenges are you grappling with now?

ICHARM promotes “localism,” which, in our view, involves preparing and implementing disaster preparedness and mitigation strategies while taking into consideration the diverse natural, social, and cultural conditions of given areas and the specific needs of the local people. This is one key challenge we’re trying to conquer now as we share our knowledge with national and local clients and help them find the best, most feasible strategy for their situation.

To improve our local problem diagnosis and prescription, we are currently developing flood preparedness indicators and standards that would serve as a checklist. We are also developing a flood forecasting system called IFAS (Integrated Flood Analysis System), which will allow local engineers to use global satellite data, together with locally measured ground observations, to simulate local hydrological processes.

In the short lifespan of ICHARM, which accomplishments are you most proud of?

There is the IFAS, of course, which is an important tool for local problem solving. By making this tool freely accessible anywhere in the world, we will be promoting local ownership of flood forecasts via the local ownership of models and data, in the process making efficient, local, early warning and preparedness exercises possible. We’re making great progress there, although the development speed could be better.

Jointly with the Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), we’ve also developed a year-long masteral course on flood disaster mitigation, which is supported by high level professors and instructors. We’re very proud that 10 brilliant students successfully graduated in September with well prepared theses and are now working to apply their new knowledge in their localities. In October, the second course started with 9 fresh students.

In the coming years, we will continue to strengthen and implement capacity development programs, develop high-tech early warning systems, and mainstream localism practices into our activities.

What insights on managing water disasters would you like to share with our readers?

Natural disasters can be aggravated by the people’s actions or inaction, as already exemplified by many cases, whether in developed or developing countries.

Prevention rather than response is still the best course of action when it comes to dealing with disasters.

Nature is inescapable and so are natural hazards. But this does not mean we should resign ourselves to being victims. There are smart, productive ways of living with nature, starting with adapting ourselves to its inevitable variations.