Phl among most disaster-affected in last 20 years
The Philippines is among the countries with the highest number of recorded disaster events from 2000 to 2019, according to new United Nations disaster research.
The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction ( UNDRR) report titled “The Human Cost of Disasters 2000-2019” showed that the last 20 years have seen a “staggering” rise in climate disasters, with 7,348 recorded disaster events worldwide, claiming 1.23 million lives and affecting 4.2 billion people – many on more than one occasion – resulting in approximately $2.97 trillion in global economic losses.
There were 367 disaster events each year, a majority of which were floods and storms.
The UNDRR report, which was published to mark International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction yesterday, confirmed how extreme weather events have come to dominate the disaster landscape in the 21st century.
The report said this is a sharp increase over the previous 20 years. Between 1980 and 1999, 4,212 disasters were linked to natural hazards worldwide, claiming approximately 1.19 million lives and affecting 3.25 billion people resulting in approximately $1.63 trillion in economic losses.
The Philippines was included both in the lists of top 10 countries by total population affected by disasters (149 million) and top 10 nations most affected per 100,000 inhabitants (7,796) from 2000 to 2019.
The report said Asia suffered the highest number of disaster events. In total, there were 3,068 disaster events in Asia, followed by 1,756 events in the Americas and 1,192 events in Africa between 2000 and 2019.
“The high frequency and impact of disasters in Asia is largely due to the size of the continent and landscapes that represent a high risk of natural hazards, such as river basins, flood plains and seismic fault lines,” the report said.
It also noted high population densities in many disasterprone areas of the continent. In terms of affected countries globally, China and the United States reported the highest number of disaster events with 577 and 467, respectively, followed by India (321 events), the Philippines (304 events) and Indonesia ( 278 events). These countries all have large and heterogenous landmasses and relatively high population densities in at-risk areas.
The UNDRR said the first 20 years of this century have seen a “staggering” rise in climate disasters, while also maintaining that “almost all nations” have failed to prevent a “wave of death and illness” caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
In an urgent call for countries to prepare better for all catastrophic events from earthquakes and tsunamis to biological threats such as COVID-19, data from the UNDRR indicated that wealthy nations have done little to tackle the harmful emissions that are linked to climate threats, which make up the bulk of disasters today.
Science-anchored policies
Reacting to the UNDRR report, the Climate Change Commission ( CCC) urged policymakers, civil society organizations and other stakeholders to anchor policies on science to effectively reduce and avoid creation of new risks of disasters.
“Hazards are occurring physical phenomena caused by either the rapid or slow onset of events having atmospheric, geologic and hydrologic origins on solar, global, regional, national or local scales,” the climate body said.
“Disasters often follow natural hazards, which can be associated with having insufficient capacity or measures to reduce the potentially negative consequences of the hazard,” it added.
The CCC called for the integration of the Sendai Framework in local plans, referring to the 2015 international agreement outlining measures to reduce disaster risks and losses.
These include reducing disaster mortality, the number of affected people, direct economic loss and disaster damage to critical infrastructure and disruption of basic services.
It also includes increasing the number of countries with national and local strategies, enhancing international cooperation to developing countries and increasing the availability of and access to multi-hazard early warning systems and information assessments.
Engaging civil society, environment activists and experts in policymaking processes play an important role in strengthening public decisionmaking, particularly on issues related to climate adaptation and disaster risk reduction, according to the climate body.
“As countries around the globe face economic setback from the COVID-19 pandemic, which has a direct relation to the disturbance and loss of ecosystems further exacerbated by the worsening climate, the CCC believes that climateresilient and disaster- ready communities should be the top priority of governments worldwide to ensure that humankind will continue to survive and thrive,” the CCC said.
Protect the vulnerable
Meanwhile, in time for
International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction, a children’s rights group called on the government to put in place disaster risk preparedness plans that protect children and other vulnerable sectors as the country braces for a series of extreme weather events amid the pandemic.
Alberto Muyot, chief executive officer of Save the Children Philippines, said the national and local strategies on disaster risk reduction and climate adaptation should respond to the compounding risks of the pandemic on the most deprived and marginalized children who face risks during disasters and emergencies.
“The climate emergency and COVID-19 compel us to assess, plan and implement adaptive programs on disaster risk reduction with a childrights lens to achieve a better normal,” Muyot said.
He noted that children’s rights to survival and protection from abuse and exploitation as well as access to critical health care and education are compromised in times of emergencies.