Preparedness to curb unexpected natural disasters

The world is witnessing unexpected climate change; America, Europe, the Middle and the Far East, Africa, Australia and the rest. As a country Ethiopia is not an exception.
As we all know Ethiopians are very eager to see the fast development of their country. The Diasporas people are equally eager to see that happened, as the domiciles of the country. In the middle of this eagerness, however, unexpected matters intervene only to divert national attention to address the new coming events according to priorities.
Among these intervening elements one could trace inflation which is very much related to the price hike affecting livelihood of the people. The rising prices of some important commodities like pepper, edible oil, teff and other cereals and construction materials, although changing from time to time, had been high on the agenda. The Government had no choice but to attempt to stabilize the market by introducing more steps with regard to the monetary and fiscal policies and some more.
The recent raid against the foreign exchange black market was applauded by many, but, others had dissenting views. They said the black market was there for many years with the indirect consent of the Government, itself, and the sudden raid by a special force was taken to be against the nascent beginnings of democracy and the Constitution. They said a country that has embarked upon democratic practices should never have taken such a step outside a direct court order.
On the side of the Government, it was observed that taking such steps was, however, for different motives as we were able to grasp its moves between events. When a government becomes lenient and excessively tolerant with existing wrong situations, swindlers in the business sector abound and even become more aggressive. They affect the day to day lives of the majority of the people in the name of free market and in the name of democracy, which sounds reasonable when seen generally and from the ordinary people's point of view. Today, there are other markets that need to b inspected as well.
How about the butchery? Every butcher is free to raise raw meat prices; Birr 50.- is the order of the day per kilogram in some places.. But, this price is too high for the majority of residences of Addis Ababa-a market that seems to be left to the vagaries of the
swindlers. The best bet would have been to put the price of the ox or bull slaughtered and the amount of kilo-grams of meat extracted on the one side, and the price of a kg. of meat on the other, so that people would realize easily how much price a kilogramme of meat would fetch in the real market.
While the Government and people are so immersed in such a way to control a new situation, other events will take place in the mean while. Today, there is no "Belg Harvest" for this year due to the absence of the short rains. However, the Government is sure that it is able to make up for the missing harvest from its reserve and from other quick growing harvests including irrigated farms. This is pleasing news, indeed. It is also a result of planned endeavours. In a way, one would say this is in tune with disaster prevention scheme, which, a rational Government should take in a situation like this.
Another realistic point that we should together address is the issue of the ensuing big rains. While the Government and people are engaged in settling and controlling obtaining economic problems and dealing with election issues, I hope we will not fail to take all measures that will be necessary to combat flooding. Experiences have shown that prolonged absence of rain is usually followed by flood-prone heavy rains.
Hopefully, there will be sufficient preparation in this direction, too, to prevent disaster. If for example some places of Addis, as a cosmopolitan city, or Adama are flooded and the water rise would be in some places abnormal beyond the ability of emergency vehicles could handle, what will be our civic preparation to resort to other means? Thinking for the alternative steps that should be taken should start as of now.