Consideraciones eticas

As discussed previously, (Section 3.7.2), Mauritius has a robust contingency plan for cyclones, including preparedness and early warning systems. This has been possible through the efforts of various institutions that constitute the framework of the National Disaster Preparedness Unit (NPU).

The Ministry of Housing and Lands has a National Housing Programme for the next ten years, which aims at increasing access to housing and land for the low income groups, targeting families earning a monthly household income of up to Rs 25,000 (£500). The programme helps inclusion and equality among the low income groups and also strengthens social inclusion.

Regarding families earning less than Rs 6200 (£125), the Ministry of Housing and Lands provides land to the National Empowerment Foundation as and when required for the construction of houses.

The Government also encourages self-help construction of housing units by very low to low income families who already own a plot of land. These families are financially assisted through a grant scheme either for the casting of roof slabs to complete their construction or for the purchase of building materials to start their construction.

The Housing Programme pays particular attention to families that are facing hardships, such as victims of floods, landslides, and other natural calamities, as well as families being evicted from their home and other social cases.

Improved access to land tenure to reduce vulnerability to poverty

Improving security of tenure is an essential instrument to reduce vulnerability to poverty. While the State Land Act tends to discourage the illegal occupation of state lands, it also allows the regularisation of squatters by the grant of a building site lease over the occupied site. In 2004, a Government policy was introduced that moved towards regularising pre-July 2001 residential squatters by the grant of building site leases expiring in the year 2060.

78

3.11.1 Warning systems

In order to reduce the risk of natural disasters, the Mauritius government, through an agreement with international agencies, has developed a model National Action Plan based upon the WMO four-stage disaster cycle (Section 1.3). A description of the warnings system applied by the Mauritius Meteorological Services and the precautions to be taken by the public at various phases of the disaster cycle is given in Appendix 6. The aim of the warning system is to mitigate and reduce disaster risk and take timely measures for the recovery of the population. The Meteorological Services, national and local institutions, the media, social welfare services, the private sector, the government, and NGOs, all work in a concerted effort throughout a cyclonic period to ensure the safety and security of the population and the follow-up recovery in the aftermath of the disasters (Parker and Budgen, 1998). However, once the ‘threat’ is over, the warning is lifted, and the population is allowed to resume its normal activities. In the event of destruction, recovery and rehabilitation programmes are initiated, but no strategy exists to build long-term resilience.

3.11.2 Awareness-building and public education

In order to ensure that the warning system is well understood, the Meteorological Services (MMS) produces booklets and posters designed to provide information to the public and to the different stakeholders who are involved in cyclone hazard management. The posters are fixed in public places, factories, schools, and offices. Warning bulletins are broadcast in different languages understandable to different sections of the general public at regular intervals on television and radio. The bulletins are disseminated whenever a threat exists and are followed by more frequent bulletins during and immediately after cyclonic conditions. The weather conditions and forecasts are disseminated through newspapers relaying accounts of the positions and evolution of cyclones in the vicinity of Mauritius. As part of the awareness-building, the personnel of Meteorological Services give talks on cyclones and the warning system in schools and community centres. Workshops and exhibitions are organised across the country especially prior to the cyclone season. Awareness-building and sensitisation are focused on cyclones, with flood and other related disasters mentioned mostly in conjunction with cyclones.

79

This section showed how effective are the strategies used by institutions in DRR, principally for cyclones. Most of the decisions are taken by higher authorities that typically present the ‘top-down approach’ (Haque and Etkin, 2005) also referred to in Section 1.3. It is noted that the population is ‘trained’ to respond and is rarely involved in any decision-making. Further information on these issues with emphasis on flood mitigation measures was obtained from agency stakeholders during semi-structured interviews.

3.11.3 Insurance

The Sugar Insurance Fund was established in the wake of a cyclone that devastated sugar cane crops across the island in 1945 (Sugar Insurance Fund Board, 2014) as an agricultural insurance scheme (Section 3.7.1) to cover losses due to cyclones, drought, and excessive rain. Today, many insurance companies have diversified their policies to cover a wide range of services. People in the medium to high income group have their houses, vehicles, and life insured from the risk of cyclones, floods, and other hazards. However, insurance companies do not take the responsibility for casualties when people venture out in stormy weather. Low-income communities are not covered by any insurance, so reconstruction after a natural disaster becomes difficult.