Rapes and other sexual assaults go unreported during natural disasters and this also leads to the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections due to the lack of essential services.
Red Cross Disaster Program Manager, Vuli Gauna addressing participants at the Disaster Awareness Workshop this morning in Lami said the lack of services like lighting at evacuation centers is one of the main concerns.
Gauna added that a survey was carried out in 2004 which was a response due to the flooding in the North and as well as a few tropical cyclones where they interviewed people staying at evacuation centres and it was revealed that a common factor was the lack of security and lighting which resulted in a number of sexual assaults.
Meanwhile, workshop facilitator and UN Human rights officer, Anne Thurin also highlighted the need to have proper monitoring of evacuation centers.
Thurin said statistics from the National Disaster Management office, showed that there were a total of 13,002 evacuees in 1,804 evacuation centers around the country during Hurricane Tomas and in some cases close to 1,000 people were sheltering in one school.
Thurin added that one of the very important elements that needs to be looked at is the need for evacuation centre managers who are trained and know what action to take when a natural disaster strikes.
She said once these managers are in place, then it will be easier to monitor the movement of people as well as ensuring that the evacuation centers that have been activated have all the available resources such as proper lighting, sanitation as well as to see whether the centre will be able to deal with a huge influx of people during a natural disaster.
The workshop which is being attended by all Divisional commissioners, Red Cross, DISMAC officials and other stakeholders from Government is underway at Novotel Lami.
Lack of essential services a concern
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