Experts say Asia prone to disasters

Experts say Asia prone to disasters

Agence France-Presse, Singapore

Asia is the most disaster prone region in the world and governments must develop a culture of preparedness for calamities, experts at a conference here said on Wednesday.

Rapid urbanization has increased the vulnerability of Asian cities to disasters, experts from the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center (ADPC) said in a paper presented at a conference here on making Asian cities safer.

"In Asia, we are faced with the challenge of dealing with an urbanizing population in a most disaster prone region. Disasters causing huge loss of life and property in the region result in severe setbacks to the development process," said Aloysius Rego and Christine Apikul in their paper.

"Asia is the most disaster prone region in the world," they said, citing data showing that the region accounts for 42.6 percent of the total number of disasters worldwide.

Between 1992 and 2001, an average of 46,000 people were killed and 180 million people affected by disasters annually in Asia, they said.

"This represents nearly 75 percent of fatalities and 90 percent of the world's affected population every year," they added.

Over the past three months alone, there was an earthquake in Indonesia, flashfloods and landslides in Thailand, as well as severe flooding in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam.

A powerful typhoon hammered South Korea and drought has hit many parts of India.

Complicating the natural calamities is the rapid growth of the population of Asian cities.

By 2030, more than 50 percent of Asia's population is projected to live in cities, up from 37 percent currently, they said.

"As cities grow, economies grow, more houses are built, more infrastructure are constructed, and often times marginalised populations are pushed to more vulnerable areas, the disaster risks increase," they said.

However, while cities are increasingly vulnerable to disasters they are vital economic engines and the proceeds from the wealth they create could be used to lessen the impact of these calamities.

The paper proposed that Asian city authorities adopt a comprehensive policy approach in dealing with disasters to "mitigate" their impact. Such a policy should be put in place before a disaster strikes, when it has already struck and during the recovery and reconstruction phase.

In the past, Asian governments responded only to emergencies as they occurred, "with hastily arranged ad hoc relief operations" by bringing biscuits and blankets to the stricken populace, the authors said.

Training and public awareness should also be promoted on the community, provincial and national levels, they said.

However, many national disaster management offices in Asia "remain relatively weak, under-funded and under-staffed both in numbers and qualifications," they said.

"They are often still narrowly focused on the relief and response operations instead of long-term mitigation activities that require the cooperation and coordination of other government departments," they added.

The authors suggested the development of a "culture of disaster mitigation" across social sectors and levels by promoting general awareness.