Cameroon is today teaming with the rest of the international community to commemorate World Civil Defence Day.

Many will tend to say it is just one of the many “days” that are marked all along the year, many of which are decreed by the United Nations but which hardly ever have any real impact on the field.

But this year’s event can hardly fit into that category; not when our nation has hardly finished its convalescence from devastating floods that inflicted heavy losses in human life and material across the land last year. From the sheer scope of devastation –probably the most severe in that category in the nation’s history – Cameroonians were right in dismissing 2012 as a veritable annus horribilis.

A retrospective glimpse at the happenings of last year lead us inexorably to the fact all these over-flowing waters could have been kept under control or simply that many of these unpleasant situations could have been averted with a minimum of adapted palliative initiatives. The theme of this year’s World Civil Defence Day being marked today, is very instructive in this consideration. The theme calls for greater participation of the civil society in risk prevention.

Whether it was in the Far-North, North, East or the North-West where the over-flowing waters left their trail of destruction, the same complaints about neglect and the culpable indifference of the affected populations was blamed for the disaster. This year’s theme is calling on civil society actors to be more involved; but it is first and foremost the responsibility of the people to ensure that they live in safety.

People live around river banks and are first-hand witnesses to the regular overflows of such rivers, but will hardly ever take any preventive measures about their safety until overflowing waters wash off parts of their belongings. Those who live in marshy neighbourhoods will build houses without ensuring that foundations were made of solid concrete that can resist water.

Those who live in fire-prone areas never care about inflammable building materials that will ease the spread of fire. In the mad rush for urban lots, people settle for dangerous slopes in full knowledge of the fact that the continual digging of boreholes in search of water or for use as toilets renders same fragile and thus easing landslides in which houses and humans are swept away.

God has generally been on our side; because some of the difficult-to-handle situations such as earthquakes or mass-destruction cases such as chemical accidents have not been part of our lot so far. But that should not send us asleep! Rather, we should integrate a culture of security awareness in our habits and reflexes.