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The World Bank has called for governments around the world to ‘have comprehensive hazard approaches’ in avoiding natural disasters, which killed more than 90,000 people and affected more than 150 million lives in 2005 – a record year of natural disaster-related incidents, according to a new World Bank/Columbia University report released yesterday (11th October 2006). Entitled ‘Natural Disaster Hotspots: Case Studies’, the report calculates that the 360 natural disasters in 2005 caused $159 billion in damage (of which, $125 billion were losses caused by Hurricane Katrina in the US), a 71 percent increase over the total losses of $93 billion in 2004.
According to the report, the impacts of population and economic growth, rapid urbanization, environmental degradation, and climate change are a few of the factors that will continue to fuel a trend towards the increased occurance and cost of natural disasters unless something is done to reduce disaster risks.
“Natural hazards and their impacts,” said Katherine Sierra, World Bank vice president for sustainable development, “will continue to evolve throughout the 21st Century due to changing socioeconomic conditions, coastal land use, and climatic risks.”
‘Natural Disaster Hotspots’ looks at three case studies which address specific hazards – landslides, storm surges, and drought – as well as three other case studies that address regional multi-hazard situations in Sri Lanka, the Tana River basin in Kenya, and the city of Caracas, Republic Bolivariana de Venezuela.
Margaret Arnold, senior program officer, said that, “Taken together, the global analysis and case studies in the new report provide strong evidence of the importance of employing proactive, comprehensive approaches in disaster risk management. Given resource constraints and the multiple roles played by key infrastructure – such as roads, railroads, and ports in disaster preparedness, emergency response, reconstruction, and ongoing economic activity – it is vital that planners and decision makers at all levels have a sound appreciation of the hazards prevalent in their specific regions on concern, along with associated vulnerabilities.”
“Moreover,” Arnold continued, “they need to understand the potential interactions among these hazards, whether direct – for example, storms that initiate both floods and landslides – or indirect – such as consecutive hazards that deplete natural resources and strain response capacities.”
www.worldbank.org/hazards
•Date: 12th October 2006• Region: World •Type: Article •Topic: DR general
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