In late Jan­u­ary, a cat­a­strophic earth­quake dev­as­tated Haiti, and as the world strug­gled to help, barely a month later a far stronger seis­mic event bat­tered Chile. The unavoid­able com­par­i­son between these events showed how greater pros­per­ity and pre­pared­ness, espe­cially atten­tion to seismic-resistant con­struc­tion, helped pre­vent mas­sive casu­alty and eco­nomic paral­y­sis in Chile.

But there was another imme­di­ate les­son, com­mon to the two sit­u­a­tions: It con­cerned the urgency to ensure func­tion­ing life­lines, notably potable water and first aid, dur­ing calami­ties. Their absence con­tributed in both to des­per­a­tion and a break­down in order.

Cru­cial as it is to build readi­ness over time, much can be achieved imme­di­ately by mak­ing vital instal­la­tions, such as hos­pi­tals and emer­gency shel­ters, more disaster-resistant. These sys­tems also need to be assured of unin­ter­rupted power sup­ply, a net­work of pro­tected access routes, and secure pro­vi­sion of safe water and san­i­ta­tion. In too many coun­tries, facil­i­ties that are essen­tial for an effec­tive response are tied to net­works that are almost guar­an­teed to fail.

In Haiti, Chile and else­where before, potable water could not be pro­vided to vic­tims in rea­son­able time, and emer­gency med­ical facil­i­ties dropped off-line just when needed most. The abil­ity to take early action in crit­i­cal care also has a cas­cad­ing impact on the whole recov­ery process. Had basic con­nec­tiv­ity to emer­gency med­ical care and water, for exam­ple, con­tin­ued in Haiti and Chile (or in other pre­vi­ous cat­a­stro­phes), recon­struc­tion would have been that much easier.

Also, rebuild­ing homes and neigh­bor­hoods requires the safe trans­porta­tion and stor­age of build­ing mate­ri­als. Com­mu­nity groups need to work together in rebuild­ing homes and infra­struc­ture. Once the use of force and firearms, loot­ing and riot­ing begin, it is tough to restore the vic­tims’ mutual trust, which is cen­tral to the renewal efforts.

Mean­while, dis­as­ters are unmis­tak­ably on the rise, espe­cially from floods and trop­i­cal storms, and their dam­ages will only increase as pop­u­la­tion pres­sures mount. Pre­ven­tion is more cost-effective than response alone, which is why Chile’s advan­tage from robust eco­nomic devel­op­ment and vig­i­lance is of inter­est to all. We see hope­ful signs else­where too.

Bangladesh, sub­ject to annual flood­ing and to truly mas­sive losses of life, has improved its abil­ity to pro­vide early-warning sys­tems and hur­ri­cane shel­ters, and evac­u­ate areas most at risk. As a result, while the cyclone and floods of Novem­ber 1970 took the lives of 300,000 peo­ple, a sim­i­lar size storm in May 1997 claimed 188 lives in contrast.

While poor con­struc­tion is a major rea­son why so many lives are lost in devel­op­ing coun­tries when dis­as­ters strike, expe­ri­ences in Colom­bia and Turkey with earthquake-resistant build­ing codes, enforce­ment of con­struc­tion stan­dards and over­sight of mate­ri­als pro­cure­ment prac­tices are likely to pay off in a major way. And every­where, bet­ter land-use plan­ning is prov­ing to be essen­tial to ensur­ing that peo­ple are not putting up their homes in harm’s way.

Some 50 devel­op­ing coun­tries face recur­rent earth­quakes, floods, hur­ri­canes and droughts, yet many of them do not rec­og­nize that they will recur. Inter­na­tional agen­cies do not acknowl­edge these risks as a sys­tem­atic threat to their assis­tance. Among the coun­tries who have bor­rowed from the World Bank for dis­as­ters, almost half do not even men­tion dis­as­ters in their devel­op­ment plans.

This must change. If we are ready to invest siz­able funds to estab­lish mech­a­nisms to avert finan­cial crises, we need to do the same with the esca­lat­ing haz­ards of nature.

In a few months the world’s atten­tion will no longer be fixed on nat­ural dis­as­ters. Once the tragedy drops off news­pa­pers’ front pages, inter­na­tional donors, like the coun­tries, find it hard to stay engaged with pre­ven­tion efforts.

The urgent les­son, espe­cially in light of this sad real­ity, is that facil­i­ties vital to cri­sis response must be linked to net­works that will not fail them. So when the earth shakes or the waters rise, crit­i­cal net­works can stay disaster-resilient — and vic­tims do not need to turn on each other to survive.

Vinod Thomas is the Director-General of the World Bank’s Inde­pen­dent Eval­u­a­tion Group.