Letters | To prepare for disasters, Hong Kong must draw on a wider pool of stakeholders

Readers discuss how to improve the city’s emergency response system, and why the government needs to change its pro-business stance on telemarketing

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Pupils, teachers, parents and alumni of Salesian School in Shau Kei Wan, together with volunteers from the Correctional Services Department, help to clean up the campus on September 11, after Hong Kong is deluged by historic rainfall and heavy flooding. Photo: Elson Li

Published: 11:30am, 6 Nov 2023

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“September 2023 was an eventful month in Hong Kong”, said the Hong Kong Observatory in early October, looking back on a series of extreme weather events in the city. A ferocious typhoon, prolonged torrential rain and very hot weather took a toll on the population and infrastructure and seriously tested the government’s emergency preparedness and response system.

“Government-wide mobilisation” and care teams are aimed at early intervention and coordinated efforts to ensure a swift response in the event of major incidents. While these institutional arrangements provide additional resources, they miss a central piece in forming an effective emergency response system.

The current three-tier emergency response system has undergone changes since it was implemented in 1996. In 2018, after Typhoon Mangkhut wreaked havoc on Hong Kong, the Security Bureau conducted a comprehensive review and emphasised “preparedness, response and recovery”. Still, the top-down approach, which involves mobilising the civil service, can only do so much during emergencies and disasters.

The Sendai Framework stresses the importance of recognising the primary role of the state in reducing disaster risk while also sharing responsibility with a wider pool of stakeholders from different social sectors. To prepare for new risks, a whole-of-society approach should be adopted. Such an inclusive people- and community-centred approach would equip society with the capacity to act in an orderly manner and be constantly risk-informed.

The Hong Kong Jockey Club Disaster Preparedness and Response Institute was an early collaborative attempt to leverage capacity-building programmes and a knowledge-sharing platform to enhance the city’s climate resilience. The institute was a perfect one-stop shop for resources and material regarding disaster risk reduction strategies.

The government could model a centre of excellence for emergency and disaster preparedness on the discontinued institute to train civil servants as part of optimising the “government-wide mobilisation” mechanism, while organising campaigns to build up awareness.