A noble and novel way to disaster response

Government must conduct many drills and exercises that tackle responses to various types of emergencies. These maneuvers and handling processes must include representatives from a wide spectrum of local agencies, which in responding to a disaster, must recreate ongoing and planned actions on a daily basis using skills and capabilities developed in earlier training and practice. Other individuals and organizations that have not been involved in any of the exercises can also be tapped to play important roles in the response.

The challenge for the combined group is how to deploy these skills and capabilities in new ways that are adapted to the emerging situation. That’s where creativity comes in. Although generally regarded as coming from sparks of inspiration or insight, creativity is figuring out how to use what we already know in order to go beyond what we currently believe in.

Creativity is a significant element of response to an extreme event. Thus, planning and training should move explicitly toward enhancing ingenuity and the ensuing improvisation at all levels of the responding organizations and the way they executed their responses. Lateral thinking is a vital component of flexibility in emergency response and those tasked to perform high-pressure jobs are strongly urged to think out of the box to bring fresher and hopefully faster approaches to deliver goods and services.

Water Treatment

The aftermath of the recent calamity has proven that the worst situations bring out the creativity in people. Surely the picture of homes, livelihood and lives being taken away by rampaging floods or crushed by overpowering landslides would never escape our memory. However, we cannot take for granted the people who have gone beyond themselves and the challenges to help — those who donated or volunteered, those who risked life and limb to rescue and those who prayed and remained optimistic.

Ondoy and Pepeng, at best, gave us a reason to be united, active, resourceful, compassionate, and tireless. It also gave us a chance to be creative. Last Monday, DZMM launched a refreshing project that can be described as both novel and noble. Since when have you heard of a public mobile shower area? Only after Ondoy and Pepeng. And only in the Philippines.

Dubbed “Kapamilya, Shower Na,” the project offers typhoon victims in evacuation centers a chance to have a decent bath for free, complete with towel, soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, comb and deodorant. The “Kapamilya, Shower Na” van is a 20-foot container atop a trailer. Inside there are two sections, one for males and the other for females. Each section has six fully tiled cubicles, all built with a rain shower and vanity mirror.

DZMM and ABS-CBN anchor Ted Failon hatched the idea after learning about the harrowing conditions in evacuation centers. Families are not only cramped in a small place, they also have to share only five portalets. According to Ted, that is something like one portalet per 1,000 people.

This prompted Failon to ask the listeners of his radio program “Tambalang Failon at Sanchez” to donate money to acquire more portable toilets for evacuees. Within two hours, he raised P700,000, which was coursed through the ABS-CBN Foundation. The next day, the donation ballooned to P1.4 million. Later he would learn from portalet suppliers that the rental of one unit costs as much as P10,500 a month, which is very expensive. Worse, all portalets have already been supplied to construction sites and other evacuation centers already.

It was then that Ted thought of coming up with a mobile shower area, where evacuees could finally shower in comfort and with dignity. After finalizing the design with the help of the Cavite chapter of the United Architects of the Philippines, led by its president, Rene Heray, and with the full support of the ABS-CBN Foundation Sagip Kapamilya head Tina Monzon Palma and Manila Radio Division head Peter Musngi, the shower van was ready to go after just four days of construction.

Not wanting to add to the floodwater problem, Failon also took the initiative of getting in contact with Manila Water. Using modern technology, the used water in the shower van does not go to waste, but is treated to be made potable and usable again. Unilever Philippines also partnered in the project, offering their personal care products to give away to evacuees for free. The ABS-CBN Foundation, meanwhile, provides the manpower for the project and manages the donations.

Last Monday, Oct. 12, “Kapamilya, Shower Na” made its maiden voyage to Ultra in Pasig, where over 800 evacuees got the “water treatment,” the rejuvenation they badly needed after not being able to take a bath for days or even weeks. Failon said the evacuees were very relieved and grateful after being able to refresh themselves. “Bilang tao, isa sa needs mo maliban sa pagkain ay yung malinisan ang katawan mo. That’s what we want to give the evacuees — the comfort and dignity of being able to clean oneself,” Failon emphasized.

“Kapamilya, Shower Na” surely brings relief of another kind to the typhoon victims. More than being physically invigorated, they are also given new hope when they see how their kapamilyas are going the extra mile and out of the box to help. To date, the group has also gone to Taytay, Rizal and Angono, and will eventually also roll out to affected Northern Luzon provinces.

Some methods used in corporate settings to develop creativity skills can be applied in the disaster response as well. Here are some principles we can adopt:

1. Distinguish between “fluent” and “flexible” thinking. As a communications guru stated, “Fluency is the ability to come up with many new ideas quickly. Flexibility stimulates variety among these new ideas.” Relevant exercises that can be considered include thinking of new uses for familiar objects, preparing “idea checklists,” and generating an inventory of idea-stimulating questions. Other aspects of our environment can likewise be tapped to induce the continuous flow of creative juices.

2. Use concepts akin to entrepreneurial creativity. Future research should examine whether or not the same corporate-related factors that impede or facilitate creativity in business settings have an impact on the disaster response environment. At a minimum, emergency response people should try to identify and mitigate the features inside and outside their organizations that might suppress or impede creativity, such as harmful reward structures and other unsuitable influences.

3. Disaster response leaders must not turn themselves into mediators or alternative dispute resolution specialists. Nevertheless, it might be useful to develop preparedness for the superimposed structure, particularly during response activities that will be carried out over a period of time and operations that will necessitate the participation of other agencies. Such attentiveness may forestall potentially divisive conflicts among groups and individuals involved.

We have to act creatively in emergency situations. The challenge is to align communications and information technology to help multiple organizations align their actions to ensure that our creative message is matched by an equally creative execution and media usage. Let’s find that “Aha!” concept, in good times or bad.

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E-mail bongosorio@yahoo.com or bong_osorio@abs-cbn.com for comments, questions and suggestions. Thank you for communicating.