Sometimes it is possible to avoid forthcoming undesirable incidences by taking appropriate, planned, and timely actions. These actions can either prevent or delay the occurrence of the undesirable incidences. In depth understanding of the various causative factors of these incidences is however required for planning, and taking those actions, or else it would amount to coincidence that might or might not bring forth the same outcome in future.
In disaster management parlance prevention is defined as regulatory, and physical measures that ensure that emergencies are prevented, or there is outright avoidance of adverse impacts of hazards, and related disasters. These include implementation of proactive, planned, and targeted strategies designed to address likely risk factors, and vulnerability of the population so as to delay or eliminate the possible impact of disasters. These ultimately ensure safer, resilient, and sustainable communities.
Prevention is often less costly than disaster relief, response, and restoration. For instance, relocating exposed people, and assets away from a hazard area.
Given below are examples of some commonly practiced preventive measures.
Landuse regulation: These refer to prohibiting, restricting or regulating anthropogenic activities in identified hazard prone areas, and thereby minimising human exposure to the hazard. Communities can thus be prevented to develop on vulnerable sites, such as the disaster prone areas of a flood plain.
Legislation: This includes putting in place rules, and regulation for the compliance of disaster safety measures. Enactment, and implementation of building bye laws is one such measure.
Structural measures: This refers to putting in place structures for preventing disaster induced losses. This includes construction of a dam or levee to control floodwaters so that the latter cannot adversely affect people, buildings, and other installations, livestock, means of production, and subsistence, and so on.
Safe disposal: This refers to proactive measures to rule out chances of disaster. Resorting to slope stabilisation measures suggested by geotechnical experts, or relocation of assets, and population likely to be exposed after observing signs of slope instability include such measures.
Likewise the Forest Department often resorts to safe disposal of litter in forest areas before the
onset of the fire season to prevent these from being effected by fire. Controlled burning is another fire control measure resorted to by the Forest Department.
Presence of fuel, oxygen, and heat is essential for initiating any fire, and by removing the litter the Forest Department tries to minimise the fuel so as to rule out possibility of fire.
Preventive measures are aimed at providing permanent protection from disasters. Not all disasters, particularly natural disasters, can however be prevented. The risk of loss of life, and injury can certainly be mitigated with good evacuation plans, environmental planning, and design standards.