Thank you for posting about this! Too bad it isn't available as a digital download.

Some background information:
This is related to the new UN GAR 2013 report:
www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/2013/en/home/index.html
And I would also like to point out this interesting publication specifically linking DRR to WASH activities:
www.preventionweb.net/english/hyogo/gar/...%20et.al,%202013.pdf

Dear all
Just want to draw your attenting to newly published book from UNU (June 2013) The role of Ecosystem in Disaster Risk Reduction:

One of the chapter deals with implementation of an Austrian subsector water supply and sanitation program aiming at sustainable development through enhanced resillience and disaster risk reduction in Central Mozambique a region considered as a highly disaster prone. UDDTs is one og the technologies for areas with high water table due to great consern of the ecosystem services. The UDDT was introduced successfully already 2001 in large scale resulting in introduction of Ecological Sanitationa as one technical option in the National Sanitation Policy.

The matter is not if, but when and where: The role of capacity development in disaster risk reduction aiming for a sustainable water supply and sanitation
The geographic location of Mozambique makes it highly prone to disasters, with 53 logged in the last 45 years, which has led to a common understanding that it is not a matter of if, but when and were the next disaster will strike.

PAARSS, which was implemented from 1999 to 2007, aimed to provide sustainable water and sanitation services in four flood-prone districts, working with the provincial and local authorities. Because floods quickly interfered with the work, an effort was made too build community resilience, and PAARSS planning and capacity-building on disaster risk reduction was ultimately coordinated with provincial disaster management plans and actions.

PAARSS offers lessons on how a development programme can incorporate resilience and disaster risk reduction measures and achieve its goals. This chapter focuses specifically on addressing the lac of access to potable water and sanitation, which can weaken a population's defenses during and after an extreme event.

The chapter is part of a book that aims to provide an overview of knowledge and practice in the multidisciplinary field of ecosystem management and DRR to encourage and further develop dialogues between scientists, practitioners, policy-makers and development planners.

The increasing worldwide trend in disasters, which will be aggravated by global environmental change (including climate change), urges us to implement new approaches to hazard mitigation, as well as exposure and vulnerability reduction. Ecosystem management is a well-tested solution that can impact all elements of the disaster risk equation – mitigating hazards, reducing exposure, reducing vulnerabilities and increasing the resilience of exposed communities – but the uptake of ecosystem-based approaches for DRR has been slow. The environmental and disaster management communities typically work independently from each other; the contribution of ecosystems management to DRR is highly undervalued compared to engineered solutions and thus not attributed appropriate budget allocations; and there are poor science–policy interactions on ecosystem-based DRR, which have led to unclear and sometimes contradictory scientific information on the role of ecosystems in DRR.



Learn more (external link to publisher)
unu.edu/publications/books/the-role-of-e...uction.html#overview