The Japanese government on Friday urged municipalities to urgently set up emergency beds and partition walls in disaster evacuation centers, based on lessons learned from the Jan. 1 earthquake on the Noto Peninsula.
The measure, aimed at improving living conditions in evacuation centers, is part of a revision of the government’s basic disaster management plan, which was adopted at a meeting of the government’s Central Disaster Management Council.
According to the government, some evacuation centers did not use cardboard beds after the 7.6 magnitude earthquake. This was mainly due to problems in changing the layout of the centres.
The revised basic disaster response plan states that local governments should actively use cardboard beds.
It also calls for the establishment of sanitation facilities such as mobile ‘toilet trailers’, designed with sanitation and crime prevention considerations in mind, in addition to the rapid construction of temporary toilets.
It underlines the need for disaster preparedness in regions with ageing communities, such as areas affected by the earthquake on the Noto Peninsula.
Local governments are being asked to collaborate with health care professionals, social workers and nonprofit organizations before disasters so they can learn more about residents in ordinary times and consider how much personal information to share with such actors in times of disaster.
For the first time, the revised plan also includes measures to be taken for evacuees still in their homes and for those staying in vehicles. This has been a problem in previous disasters, such as the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the 2016 Kumamoto quakes.
Local governments are urged to set up relief facilities for those evacuating at home and space for those evacuating in their vehicles, and to gather information on the number of such evacuees and the amount of relief supplies needed to support them.
