October 13, 2009
International Day for Natural Disaster ReductionTHE observance of the International Day for Disaster Reduction on October 14, 2009, takes place in a year that is seeing its share of natural calamities. It focuses on making “Hospitals Safe from Disasters,’’ a carry-over theme from the previous year.
Natural disasters such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunamis, get media attention, inspire action, and remain in our memories. But the suffering caused by chronic and small scale disasters such as flooding, landslides, and water contamination often escape the limelight.
A report by the World Bank estimates that three and a quarter billion people or more than half of the world’s population are exposed to at least one natural disaster a year and that in the last 50 years, the severity of impacts from natural disasters has increased, due in part to the loss of healthy ecosystems in the regions affected. Although natural disasters are often presented as rare and unexpected, the reality is that they now occur more frequently, affect more people, and cause higher economic damage than ever before.
These natural disasters exert an enormous burden on development. Each year natural disasters take a toll on nations, a toll that is measured in deaths, injuries, property damage, and economic losses. Cities are increasingly home to such types of disasters and serve as places for tackling the underlying issues that leave people vulnerable to these threats. Already we see the hints of the way climate change will affect cities, including the rise in sea level.
A new survey finds that the risks from natural disasters can be drastically reduced if local communities are involved in implementing policies enacted on the national level. Urban disaster risk reduction goes hand in hand with poverty reduction, and it can easily be linked to international efforts to achieve a better standard of living for the growing number of urban dwellers struggling to make both ends meet.
While humanitarian action to lessen the impact of disasters will always be vitally important, the global community is facing a critical challenge: How to better anticipate, manage, and reduce disaster risks by integrating the potential threat into its planning and policies. From a human perspective, all disasters are health issues and damage to health systems affect nations as a whole and all sectors of society. It has, therefore, become imperative to have disaster safe hospitals as part of a disaster safe community.
Disasters are not unchangeable facts of life but are a result of human vulnerability to natural hazards. Disaster reduction is, therefore everybody’s concern. It is only in investing in tangible risk reduction that we can reduce weakness to these misfortunes.
Quoted: mb.com.ph
