International Modern Project Management: Freetown Mudslide Case Study

Identification and Description of the problem

Discuss About The International Of Modern Project Management.

 Project Planning Management is the part of Project management. Project Management is the application of skills, knowledge, techniques and tools to the activities of the project, so that the requirements of the project can be achieved (Project management institute, 2018). Disaster Resilience is the ability of individuals, organisations, and states to adopt and recover themselves from shocks, stress or any hazard without compromising the long term prospects for the development of organisations, states, communities, and individuals at international, national, regional and local level (Combaz, 2015). This Project Planning Document Report is based on Freetown, Sierra Leone mudslide. On 14 August 2017, a mudslide occurred in the town situated near mountain area in Regent which is in the outskirts of Freetown, Sierra Leone. The disaster swept away many homes, leaving the residents of that place anxious for the news of their family members, who were struck in that mudslide (Varajão, Dominguez, Ribeiro & Paiva, 2014). This report consists of three segments in which first is Description and identification of the mudslide. It includes the basic data where this disaster occurred, the definition of the problem in brief, major causes behind the disaster, local efforts taken in order to solve the problem, VCA mapping and SWOT Analysis of the problem and lastly a summary is presented explaining and describing the need for new project. The second part of the report consists of preparing a Proposed Project Design. It consist brief description of the new project, projection of the goals and objectives, giving reasons for why the solution is appropriate, the benefits expected from the proposed project, giving the logical framework for the proposed project. The last part of the report consists of Action Plan and Implementation of the proposed project. It includes the steps to ensure community participation, sustainability of the programme and barriers, challenges and recommendations to address the community participation and sustainability of the new project. The final part of the report consists of the results obtained from doing all the parts of the report.

The Disaster occurred due to massive landslide on 14 August 2017, 6:00 AM (As per local time) in the western rural area in Freetown, the capital city of Sierra Leone. There was a landslide in Babadorie River Valley which made the existing floods even worse. It had affected both the rural and urban area affecting 6000 people of which, 1,141 residents were declared either dead or missing. There was three days of continuous intense rainfall. The Suger loaf, which is the highest peak in north of Western Peninsula Area was collapsed. The impact of damage had varied by the geography. The river channels got wide. There are four landslides occurred on that day. Due to heavy rains, the town experienced floods in several locations which cover culvert area, Glanville Brook Watercourse where one of the city rubbish dumps is situated. The huge flow of Babadorie River Valley had also caused flooding in several valleys across the town. Flooding is one of the most common hazards than large scale landsides in the town which affects almost all parts of Freetown during rainy season (The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery, 2018).

Causes

• Rainfall patterns vary across the peninsula- It is because of the atmospheric pressure and localized topography.
• Rainfall in certain catchment is not determined- Available Data is not accurate and there was limited number of weather stations.
• Weather data is not been reviewed and may require some specialists metrological interpretation.
• It is an underdeveloped area- It is because of the atmospheric reasons that there is loss of life, buildings, infrastructure and forest.
• There is no visit from the World Bank team as none of the slip was visited by the World Bank team due to time and access constraints (Papadopoulosa, Gunasekaran, Dubey, Altay, Childee, & Fosso-Wamba, 2017).

The NGO Street Child is the first one to come up in support by providing emergency food. The DaLA (Damage and Loss Assessment) was done by the government to identify the preliminary needs for funds mobilization and launch of immediate recovery. Increase in awareness of public and investment in the principal of BBB. There are three recovery plans which are made which were the urgent short-term relief for 0-3 months. It includes response, relief, measures to enhance multi-hazard risk information and logistics system. The Medium-term resilient recovery which was for 3 months- 12 months. Lastly, long-term resilient recovery for 1 year- 3 years. These include legal and institutional arrangements for social sectors, measures to mainstream the disaster risk reduction in development sectors and livelihood.   

Vulnerability and Capacity Assessment is mythology for gathering information to increase the awareness of risk and help the members of community to plan the activities to reduce the vulnerability and increase the capacity before the happening of disasters (Global Publications, 2007). It has been divided in five components which are Well-being, livelihood, Self-protection, governance, Social protection.In this mudslide, there were many of the policies which needed to be fixed by the government of Freetown so as to reduce the effect of these natural disasters which had happened in Freetown. In this case there is mudslide and floods are the natural disasters and the initiative of the government needs to be revised to reduce the effects, like:

• Town planning should be done keeping in mind the area and frequency of having natural disasters at that time.
• Accurate weather report.
• Policies by government needs to be regulated
• Need for awareness is must so that every person individually can put some of the efforts which are considered as one of the need of VCA Analysis.
• Mobility of people during that time needs to be regulated.
• Need for the up gradation of the technology so that communication will increase which can make a positive impact in that situation.
• Arrangement of emergency funds which can serve as a biggest help in that situation.
• Temporary displacement centres for citizens in case of emergency.  

Strengths: The international organisation for migration released $150,000 in emergency funds to help the people affected by it. The incident manager which was appointed by WPF has helped with the information management, coordination and the activities conducted during the Assesment of needs.

Weakness: The rainfall patters is one of the major reasons for mudslide as the accurate rainfall forecast data is not available in the place as that place is in the outskirts area weather data is not previewed in a proper manner.  

Opportunities: The response of WFP other international organisations served as the biggest source for the recovery for the Freetown. Human resources were available readily although some of them also affected from that situation but still people are ready to support each other during the time.

Threats: Risk of developing the infrastructure again is a very crucial task as the loss is very huge in terms of population and in terms of infrastructure as well. Density of the land for the future use is also very big threat (Bull.et al., 2015).

Local efforts:

The problem of mudslide in Freetown is very common like reoccurring floods, landslides and mudslides which occur generally due to climate change. It has affected almost 13% of its area and more than 35% of the population lives at risk. In Freetown, more than 220,000 affected by floods occur in Freetown in last 15 years (Harris, Wurie, Baingana, Sevalie, & Beynon, 2018). So, it clearly visible that weather conditions and awareness of citizens is one of the major and biggest reasons for the disasters. It can also become the reasons for the poverty, underdevelopments and unemployment’s. These problems have also attracted many other problems like urbanisation, technological advancement, employment opportunities, improper town planning. Some of the objectives related to the same are listed below:

Objectives

• To reduce the impact of natural disaster, as it is a normal phenomenon the Freetown.
• To upgrade the town planning.
• To increase the technological advancement.
• To increase the awareness of the citizens on natural disasters
• To increase the efficiency to make the policies regarding safety measures (Guardian News and Media Limited, 2018).

A Proposal Project Design is a description in detail of the activities related to solving a particular problem. It contains logical presentation of research idea, significance of the idea, and relationship of idea to past actions, join all the activities to proposed project. This project is related with solving the problem and giving the appropriate solution to control the effect of the mudslide which happened in Freetown. As the problem of mudslide, floods and landslide is a common problem in this area and has affected citizens for a long time, so it needs to be solved permanently. In this project, there is a description of the solution which can be recommended to solve this problem (International Youth Foundation, 2008).

The basic objective of the Proposed Project Design is to control the effect of natural disasters. In this case, mudslides and floods happened many times. So, to control the effect is the basic necessity for the project. In order to do that, some of the points are given which are:   

• Appropriate town planning: As, Freetown is situated near mountain area. It had a history of natural disaster in past 15 years, so the possibility of mudslide, landslides and floods are more in the future in this area, compared to the other areas. Town planning must be done keeping in mind the problems. For this, there are various organisations which are various Risk Management institutions who can guide the people for the same. The Technological up gradation is a very big need for this town, as it will help them to overcome the weather problem themselves and this can happen only when the people are aware of the problem.
• Weather conditions report: It must be accurate, correct, relevant and reliable as it will help government to make policies to control the effect at the time of disaster. There are various climate control measures are taken into consideration like various instruments to detect changes, change of vegetation and increase in fire risk.
• Emergency fund: There must be an emergency fund made by the government in the Freetown for the same so that if that situation arises they don’t have financial problem to overcome the disaster, government should make policies as well to protect the citizens. There must be an option for citizens that, if due to this reason they want to move out of the town or the disaster is so huge that it can create harm. The citizen should have the option to move out of the town, in order to ensure their safety. There should be proper arrangements for the same (International Labour organisation, 2010). 

In the Propose Project design, the problems which are solved are information gap by weather department. The mythologies used are easily adaptive by the local bodies like open seminars to increase the awareness. Continuous comparison of disasters is done to evaluate the outputs. The level of accuracy will be increased as this is one of the major objectives of the proposed project. It is done to promote safety (Exposure Labs, 2018).

• There would be less loss of humans as proper precautions are taken- In Freetown, if proper planning is to be done then the effects of the disaster can be minimised. Proper planning can decrease the loss as people are prepared for the disaster and also they had taken preventive measures by themselves as well.
• Technological development- It can help in improving the health conditions, as the hospitals can afford latest technology which can help in better treatment.   
• Employment generation- The employment generation can help in increasing the employment level. An increase in employment level can attract more business and investment in town, which in turn help in better town planning and government can increase and manage the need for finance. It can also increase the local effort at that time.
• Decrease in loss of money- The government and citizens are well prepared for the damage and loss so they will calculate the loss. It can help them to reduce the unnecessary expenditure that happened at that time due to inappropriate planning.  (Deutsche Welle, 2018).

1. Analysis Stage:

 It includes many kinds of analysis which are Problem Analysis, Stakeholder Analysis, Objective Analysis and Strategy Analysis.

• Problem Analysis: It involves identification of problem and establishes effect and cause relation which results in flow from these problems. In order to do a problem analysis problem tree is prepared.

Problem Tree (Wolde, Amsalu, & Alemu, 2016).

• Stakeholder Analysis: It helps in involving further identification of indicators of the problem, the sources to verify the problem and the assumptions made at the time of proposing a project. In this case the stakeholders are the people affected by the disaster which are citizens of the town, government, the international bodies helping at the time of disaster and people providing funds.

Stakeholder analysis (Qoro, 2015).

• Objective Analysis: It has been prepared after the problem tree to find out the basic objective and other objectives of the project. It can give the information regarding the future information about the situation ( Gov.,2018).

Objective Analysis (BBC, 2018).

1. Planning Stage:

(Avron, 2016)

VCA Mapping

An Action plan refers to the measures which are taken to prepare and reduce the effects of the disaster. It includes the prediction, prevention from the disaster, impacts of migration of population and to cope and respond to the consequences of the disaster. In the following action plan, some of the measures and initiatives are taken into consideration in order to decrease the effects of all natural disaster. The disasters which are covered in this plan are mudslide, floods and landslides, as these are the major disasters which are there in the town on a repetitive basis.

1. Awareness of Local bodies:

• The family households are the major people who are first to response and also the first one who suffer in the disasters. So it is very important to aware them about the disasters and help them in training so that they are capable to take the initiatives on their own as well.
• Regular control on the rescue and relief operations like in this mudslide the Red Crescent National Societies and the Red Cross anr the organisatione who help in the rescue operations.
• There must be special care taken for the citizens who work in any place which is in a distance with town. In case they are struck in the middle on the travel they can get an help.
• There must be a kit in every household which consists all the things needed at the time of disaster. In case of real emergency they can just take that kit and leave as soon as possible.
• There must be an emergency contact person which can help the citizens in finding out the information about any person living in the town at the time of disaster.

1. There must have an emergency contact for the emergency shelter. If in case, the situation arises there must be an emergency shelter for the citizens where they can live at that time.
2. Training centres must be established to give real time training of the disasters. (Jalloh, MPH, Raschid, & BS, 2018).
3. There must proper communication and cooperation among the citizens. It can be done by taking some of the steps to increase the mutual participation by appointing some volunteers for any kind of disaster.
4. Establishing the emergency alert systems at different parts of the city. It saves the time of the people to get the information about the seriousness of disasters (Cox & Hamlen, 2014)

• Regular check on soil- It can help to increase the sustainability of the soil which leads to prevention from damage of soil. It can help in finding a landslide at an early stage.
• Tree plantation- As, in Freetown there is a huge population which had increased the need for the land. Due to this natural vegetation is affecting which in turn can impact the weather conditions to control this there must be a policy of growing plants in every household or in every building. It should be made compulsory for all the owners of any land.
• The unregulated construction should be decrease so that it can serve as a biggest advantage to improve the sustainability.
• Weather Reports- There must be proper efficiency in weather reports as it can cause a huge impact in getting an idea about the weather conditions for the citizens, government and rescue bodies as well. It can help making the policies to control the effect of disaster (Nyamwanza&  Kujinga, 2016).

• Conditional Barriers:

1. Diversity in reasons- In this, the reasons for the disaster can vary from other disasters. So, the solutions should also vary as per the disaster.
2. Complexity of Emergency management- In this, the rules and policies regarding the emergency need is a complex structure so it will be difficult to understand for the general public.

• Emergency Response:

1. Every organisation has a different approach towards the situation. The clash of approach can be there which can also decrease the coordination.

• Situational Conditions:

1. There is an interdependency regarding the plan. All the teams are dependent as some of the risk management task involves the tasks which are parallel or sequential in nature.
2. It has a dynamic nature. Due to changes in time new techniques are involved to control the effect of disaster but some citizens wants to rely on old techniques. These old techniques are not only expensive but they are also time taking as well.

• Management of emergency stock.
• Coordination of all government departments, citizens and disaster management organisations.
• Cooperation all stakeholders.
• Awareness of citizens
• Management of emergency funds (Herfort, Brenning, & Zipf, 2011)

Conclusion

In the previous parts of the report, the emerging need to take corrective steps against natural disasters has been mentioned. A Natural Disaster is an adverse event which is the result of the natural process of the earth. In this report, the example of Sierra Leone Mudslide is taken.

the problem is identified and described in detail in which major cause of the problem was identified as the inaccurate weather report, the local effort of making a plan in three phases worked very well, lastly VCA mapping and SWOT Analysis of the disaster is done which gives the brief idea about vulnerability of the plan and the basic strengths, weakness, opportunities and threats of the problem. This helped to find out the basic needs for the new proposed project. The new Proposed Project design is prepared which gives the idea about the goals, objectives, and recommendations and lastly the challenges we need to face while preparing for the disaster. At last, the implementation of the plan is prepared in which the actual facts of implementation are highlighted. It is prepared to give the detail information regarding the implementation in which various measures and steps are given which results in finding out the various types and various ways which can be used to decrease the effect of the disaster.    

Reference

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BBC (2018). Freetown: A disaster waiting to happen?. Retrieved from: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-40933491

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SWOT Analysis

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 Guardian News and Media Limited. (2018). Sierra Leone: fears of second mudslide as week of national mourning begins. Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2017/aug/16/sierra-leone-mudslide-national-mourning

Harris, D., Wurie, A., Baingana, F., Sevalie,S., & Beynon, F. (2018). Mental health nurses and disaster response in Sierra Leone. The Lancet Global Health.6(2), e146–e147.

 Herfort, B., Brenning, A., & Zipf, A. (2014). A geographic approach for combining social media and authoritative data towards identifying useful information for disaster management. International Journal of Geographical Information Science.29(4), 667-689. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/13658816.2014.996567  

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