Page 78 - Lybia Flipbook

Beyond Crises: the Path to Reconstruction
When Storm Daniel hit in September 2023, Khaled was in his apartment inside the dense maze of the Al Belad district, near the port in the old city of Derna. He could hear the rains announcing the arrival of the hurricane expected that night. People had received messages about it and were anxious, but Derna had experienced hurricanes before. The founders of the city even chose its location at the mouth of a long wadi so that the rainwater descending from the mountains could be used to create a fertile plain. Two dams were constructed to contain the water and keep it for irrigation. That night, however, the rain was much heavier than usual. Unable to support the weight of the water, the dams broke, releasing over 30 million tons of water. Violent torrents swept through the city, destroying everything in their paths. Khaled survived, as his jacket snagged on a light pole, stopping him from being swept into the sea. But many were not so fortunate.
The flood was a tragedy of enormous proportions, to be added to a long list of disasters both natural and man- made.5 Among all the crises, armed violence remains by far the one with the deepest impact and the highest cost. Cities like Benghazi, Derna, Tripoli, Sirte, and Marzouk still bear the scars of war and await investment needed to repair the damage. The cost of successive conflicts is difficult to estimate, but the price tag of war has been placed at over US$576 billion.6 While the country is exposed to many risks, as most countries are, the com- bination of conflict and climate change makes disasters more frequent and more damaging.
Storm Daniel and the response that followed provoked renewed debate on the ability of Libya to prepare for crises and respond to them, and more in general on how to address more effectively growing reconstruction needs. The main challenge with preparedness is that there is no integrated development planning. This is not due to a lack of expertise; quite the contrary. Many civil servants are technically competent and understand how to fit interrelated processes
and dissemination, including on how to react to the information to reduce exposure, response coordination and preparedness, public engagement and community outreach. Currently, people are largely left to their own devices in determining where to get their information, how to prepare, and how to react in case of emergencies.
In the absence of formal disaster preparedness, com- munities have developed their own response system. Whether it involves recovering from the destruction by ISIS
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together. The fundamental
problems are the fragmenta-
tion of institutions and the
absence of a unified national
budget, the last of which was
promulgated in 2013. Without
a unified budget or national
development plans, mainte-
nance has been neglected. As
a result, destroyed neighborhoods have yet to be rebuilt, and schools and health centers have fallen into disrepair.
The other impediment to preparedness is the lack of an early warning and response system. Again, here, it is not the absence of expertise that is the problem. A functioning and competent meteorological agency can predict weather, including hurricanes like Storm Daniel. Such predictive capacity, however, requires legal and institutional arrangements, effective communication
“My life in Libya consists of patience, struggle and attempts to contribute to improving the current conditions as much as possible, starting with my involvement
at the community level.”
Hamza, 22 years
in Sirte, inter-communal vio- lence in Murzuq, or the flood in Derna, family networks are quickly mobilized, including assistance from those living abroad. Social media are also a critical resource for provid- ing information on threats as well as reconnecting people after disasters. Civil society,
professional associations, and other networks expand the list of potential resources.
Among the most helpful non-government organizations are the Scouts and the Libyan Red Crescent. These are often among the first responders to calls of distress and the most effective in getting victims to safety. The Scouts are noteworthy because they were one of the few civil