88 per cent of the people affected by naturaldisasters worldwide in the past 45 years live in the Asia and Pacificregion. Within the same span, the region has lost two million lives and US$1.15 trillion, accounting for 56.6 and 41 per cent of global disasterimpacts respectively.
A new report issued this week by the United Nations Economic and SocialCommission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) at the 3rd World Conference onDisaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan, illustrates how floods, storms,earthquakes and tsunamis have been the most violent natural disasters in
the region, claiming 92 per cent of lives lost and 76 per cent of economiclosses.
The Overview of Natural Disasters and their Impacts in Asia and thePacific, 1970 – 2014 shows a decline in the average number of fatalitiesper event, despite a rise in the number of natural disasters. However, theeconomic losses in the region have surged significantly from US$ 5 billionper year in the 1970s to around US$ 75 billion per year in recent years.
“Our review of the natural disaster effects of the last 45 years provesthat disasters reverse socio-economic gains, disrupt long term growth pathsand pose phenomenal challenges to government and the private sector. Theregion needs to build resilience to disaster in order to protect its growthprospects. Economic losses have increased by almost 15 times in the last 45years,” said Dr Shamshad Akhtar, Executive Secretary of ESCAP who is inSendai raising the issue that building resilience to disasters is crucialfor protecting sustainable development gains.
Highlights of the new research include the insights that:
Six billion people from the region were affected by disasters over thesame period, or 87.6 per cent of people affected globally.
Between 1970 and 2014 the world saw 11,985 natural hazard eventsaffecting six billion people. Of these, 5,139 natural disasters tookplace in Asia and the Pacific region, 1,652 in South and South-West Asia(the highest number cases) followed by a total of 1,000 for South EastAsia and East and North-East Asia combined.
The report finds that the least Developed Countries and Small IslandDeveloping States are highly exposed to disaster risk. LDCs lost onaverage US$ 592 million per year on average, a significant part of theirGDP
Download a copy of Overview of Natural Disasters and their Impacts in Asiaand the Pacific, 1970 – 2014: http://bit.ly/1FqUGuJ