Introduction
Zeinab Mokalled in Lebanon and Sanumaya Kumal in Nepal live 4,600 kilometers apart in very different places, cultures, and circumstances, so what can they possibly have in common? The late poet Maya Angelou would have called them âwomen warriorsâ. They understood hardship, and overcame challenges with wisdom, creativity, and fortitude. Armed with a secret weaponâresilienceâtheir courageous actions have triggered a social tsunami of progressive change within their own communities and beyondâmuch needed and welcome given that the âBlue Marbleâ, which we affectionately call âMother Earthâ or âMother Natureâ, has been increasingly showing her displeasure as she âgroans in travailâ1 to restore equilibrium after decades of human neglect and irresponsible activities. In the Americas alone in 2017, hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, earthquakes in Mexico, and California wildfires have been just a few examples of her artful rebukes.
Masses of women like Zeinab and Sanumaya recognize that they can be, and are, key agents of change in addressing Mother Natureâs wrath. But despite this knowledgeâwhich will come as no surprise to the more than 1.5 billion women who constitute half of todayâs coastal dwellersâbeing less visible in their work also makes them less likely to have access to decision-makers, to be consulted on how to better safeguard community assets and resources, or to be engaged in reconstruction of their living environment following a disaster. Underscoring the foresight and resolve that women everywhere are contributing to creating better communitiesâwhether inland or coastal; urban, rural, or remoteâthis essay portrays two stories of âwomen developing resilience to manage vulnerabilityâ in their own communities.2
Mother Earthâs Difficult Children
Out of a total landmass of almost 37 billion acres, Mother Earth houses 58 people per square kilometer atop the 16,000,000,000 acres that are habitable. Sixteen billion acresâhow large is that? If it were dollars, it would mean the equivalent of saving $10,000 every single day for 4,384 years. Or buying 80,000 houses at $200,000 each. Or, if you like travelling and think in terms of miles, flying around the world 642,544 times, or even taking a round trip to the Moon 33,487 times.
On that habitable terrain, approximately three billion people or about 40 percent of the worldâs population live within 100 kilometers (62 miles) of a coastâthatâs the equivalent of just over two consecutive 42.2-kilometer marathons. And by 2025, that population is anticipated to double.3 Our persistence in developing diverse societies in coastal areasâdefined by the UNâs Food and Agriculture Organization as the âinterface or transition areas between land and seaâ4âresults in increasing and unremitting challenges to all facets of human activity that hamper âthe ultimate purposeâ of emergency management, disaster risk reduction, and resilience-building, which is âto save lives, preserve the environment and protect property and the economyâ from natural, technological, and human-caused events.5
In addition to their status in the community, women confront another determinant in how they contribute to that âultimate purposeâ, and that is the type of community in which they live. Factors such as geographical size, demographic composition, availability of critical infrastructure, governance, emergency response resources, cultural ideologies, and beliefs are just some of many influences that play a role. In an attempt to offer clarity with respect to different coastal community types, Professor Tim Smith classifies them into five kinds: cities (including megacities, which typically have populations exceeding ten million, such as Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan or New York City and its surroundings); peri-urban areas (the transition zones between urban and non-urban areas); regional centers (smaller than cities); regional settlements (small
Regardless of their type, coastal communities are increasingly vulnerable to threats of cascading anthropogenic activities. Climate change (causing unprecedented volatile weather patterns), rising sea levels (is it possible that some coastal communities will become ramshackle floating âatollsâ as portrayed in the 1995 movie Waterworld?), coastal erosion and degradation, decline in ecosystems, unmanaged development, growing urbanization, poor resource management, and other kind of threats from human activitiesâall are well documented. And although the alarm bells have been ringing for several decades now, implementing effective measures remains difficult for many public and private bodies since they rely primarily on the certainty of facts for decision-making. To this end, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015â2030, agreed upon at the UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in 2015, is notably encouraging. It outlines targets and priorities aiming âto achieve the substantial reduction of disaster risk and losses in lives, livelihoods and health and in the economic, physical, social, cultural and environmental assets of persons, businesses, communities and countries over the next 15 years.â7
Despite these efforts, Mother Nature is no longer waiting for us to get our act together. As she continues to go about her business, we must become better at developing hazard-resilient communities and enhancing the ability of coastal communities to absorb and recover from impacts. That requires everyoneâs effort; and yet almost 50 percent of coastal dwellers are underutilized. Womenâ100 of them for every 102 men8âcan help, as Zeinabâs and Sanumayaâs stories will illustrate.
Zeinab
When the regional governor asked why she caredâafter all, âWe are not Parisâ he had told herâ81-year-old Zeinab Mokalled from Arabsalim, Lebanon established a community collection team in the mid-1990s to address the rubbish that was piling up on the streets of her village. At the time, southern Lebanon had been occupied by Israel for 15 years and waste collection had ceased. Refused assistance by the regional governor, Zeinab âcalled on the women of the village to help, not the menâpartly because she wanted to empower them, and partly because she thought they would do a better job.â Today, her commitment to âensuring that Arabsalim is clean and tidyâ has inspired women in the nearby villages of Kaffaremen and Jaarjoua to establish their own initiatives, as well as the creation of an organization named âCall of the Earthâ where a stream of visitors is learning more about how âcaring for the earth is our responsibility in this part of the world. Whether we do it or not, our politicians wonât care. Itâs down to us.â9
Unknown to Zeinab, her modest efforts have far-reaching implications in our contemporary world. In 2012 alone, Derek Thompson wrote, the world would generate â2.6 trillion pounds of garbageâthe weight of about 7,000 Empire State Buildingsâ10 and that was predicted to reach âapproximately 2.2 billion tonnes per year by 2025.â11 As the world population continues to balloon, getting a handle on safe management of daily garbage disposal is increasingly critical for public health, and even more so during an emergency.
Not only will existing collection and disposal systems be disrupted, but there will be extra waste caused by the emergency itself. Initially, for camps of displaced people or refugees and similar new sites, there will be no arrangements in place at all. If solid waste is not dealt with quickly, serious health risks will develop which will further demoralize the community already traumatized by the emergency.12
Thank you, Zeinab Mokalled from Lebanon, for your insight.
Sanumaya
At the time of the devastating earthquake on 25 April 2015, almost half the households in Nepal had at least either one migrant abroad or a returnee, with nearly 88 percent of those being male.13 Consequently, after the disaster, women in rural communities found their contributions toward recovery efforts particularly gratifying. With so many men working abroad, reconstruction was slow as Nepal was facing âa lack of manpower at a crucial time.â14 Two years later it was still estimated that 60,000 skilled workers were needed to build earthquake-resistant houses in fourteen districts.15
That is when Sanumaya Kumal, her friends, and others broke with their cultural tradition of household chores to become trained in construction by national and international organizations to help rebuild damaged houses, and make them more earthquake resistant in a severely affected district north-west of Kathmandu. From carrying sand and bricks, to digging foundations, building walls, roof-fitting, and plastering, Sanumaya, who used to work on a farm, was thrilled with her new-found skill sets, now capable to âdo everything that a male mason can do.â16
Today, over two years later, âthe women say they are earning a decent living, as well as being happy that they are taking part in important national workâ such as rebuilding schools and health centers as well.16 If this isnât an exemplary story of what An Emergency Management Framework for Canada calls a âvaluable opportunity to develop and implement measures to strengthen resilience,â then what is?
Thank you, Sanumaya Kumal from Nepal, for your determination and courage.
Women Warriors
We are accustomed to it by now. Every day, every single day, we hear disaster stories of some sortâwhether human-caused, technological, or naturalâ
The Bible, Romans 8:22.
B. Leipert, âRural and Remote Women Developing Resilience to Manage Vulnerability,â in Rural Nursing: Concepts, Theory, and Practice, eds., H.J. Lee and C.A. Winters (New York: Springer, 2005), 79â95, 79.
L. Creel, âRipple Effects: Population and Coastal Regions,â Population Reference Bureau, last accessed 10 September 2017, http://www.prb.org/Publications/Reports/2003/RippleEffectsPopulationandCoastalRegions.aspx.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Integrated Coastal Area Management and Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (Rome: FAO, 1998), Part A, s. 1.1.
Government of Canada, Ministers Responsible for Emergency Management, An Emergency Management Framework for CanadaâThird Edition (Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, Emergency Management Policy and Outreach Directorate, 2017), 7.
T. Smith, Climate Change Impacts on Coastal Communities, CoastAdapt Impact Sheet 13 (Queensland: National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility, Gold Coast, 2016), 7.
United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction, Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015â2030 (18 March 2015), http://www.unisdr.org/we/inform/publications/43291.
United Nations, World Population Prospects: The 2017 Revision Key Findings and Advance Tables (New York: Department of Economic and Social Affairs, 2017), 1.
N. Abou Mrad, âThe 81-year-old Woman Inspiring a Nation to Recycle,â BBC News, 8 June 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-40191270.
D. Thompson, â2.6 Trillion Pounds of Garbage: Where Does the Worldâs Trash Go?,â The Atlantic, June 7, 2012, https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/06/26-trillion-pounds-of-garbage-where-does-the-worlds-trash-go/258234/.
D. Hoornweg and P. Bhada-Tata, What a Waste: A Global Review of Solid Waste Management (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2012), 8.
J. Rouse and B. Reed, Solid Waste Management, Technical Notes on Drinking-Water, Sanitation and Hygiene in Emergencies No. 7 (Geneva: World Health Organization, 2013), 7.1.
S. Sharma et al., State of Migration in Nepal, Research Paper VI (Kathmandu: Centre for the Study of Labour and Mobility, 2014).
S. Tamang, âHow Nepal Quake Turned Women into Builders,â BBC News, 24 April 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-39694171.
R. Samachar Samiti, âShortage of Skilled Workers Affects Reconstruction Work,â The Himalayan Times, 7 January 2017, https://thehimalayantimes.com/nepal/shortage-of-skilled-workers-affects-reconstruction-work/.
Tamang, supra note 14.
âAre You a Woman Warrior?,â Keen, last accessed 31 January 2018, https://www.keen.com/articles/spiritual/are-you-a-woman-warrior.