Cuban Expert Alerts on Need on Knowledge on Disaster Risk

Santiago de Cuba, Aug 8 (Prensa Latina) Cuban expert Fernando Guasch, from the National Seismologic Investigations Center (Cenais) called Thursday the attention about the need to know about the risk of disasters.

In his statements to Prensa Latina the Cuban expert talked about his recent participation in a Regional Collective Action Forum on disasters in El Salvador, with the presence of authorities and experts from that country, Honduras, Guatemala and Nicaragua.

Guasch said that the contemporary knowledge on disasters has more complex and dynamic elements and sceneries in the present time, a different social context and increase of the deficit of natural, food and energy resources, which make the life in Central American, South American and Caribbean communities quite difficult.

The Cuban expert urged to increase the knowledge on disasters in the communities and emphasized on the barriers limiting the development of human life in critical sceneries, with obstacles like poverty, inequality, lack of opportunities, lack of attention by the federal governments and lack of development of prevention of disasters in general.

Finally, Guasch said that preventing the risk of disasters is a process by means of which the pre-existing risk may be permissible, acceptable or manageable, according to the respective response capacities by every country.