South-East Asia has suffered from neglecting planning for disasters. Governments must heed the warnings and act now, argues Crispin Maslog.
In the closing months of 2011, flash floods caused by the wayward Pacific typhoon, Washi,swept some 1,500 people to their deaths overnight and left at least 2,000 missing in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao.
Typhoons strike Mindanao very rarely, every 40 years or so. But when it hit Mindanao this time, it lashed with a vengeance. The newspaper reports were dramatic, painting a vivid picture where "swaths of impoverished urban settlements mainly from the hard-hit cities . . . disappeared in the deadly brown torrents of slime and mud". [1]
And in Thailand, a deluge in October triggered by the northeast monsoons was the country's worst in half a century. It inundated 65 of Thailand's 77 provinces, including Bangkok, drowned at least 800 people and unsettled more than 12 million others. The World Bank estimated damage at 1.4tn baht (US$44.8 billion), making it one of the costliest disasters in human history.
The floods that inundated not only the Philippines and Thailand but also Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and most of South-East Asia towards the end of 2011 are not only a sign of things to come, but a warning that governments need to act now — with a serious and sound approach to planning.
Disaster waiting to happen
The sad truth is that the deaths and devastation could have been minimised if governments and international agencies had heeded early warnings.
The flash floods that struck the cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan in Mindanao were a disaster waiting to happen. Three years ago, the Philippine Imperative for Climate Change (PICC), World Wide Fund for Nature-Philippines (WWF) and Filipino scientists simulated the effects of extreme weather phenomena linked to climate change.
The simulation findings were shown to Philippine lawmakers in 2009 and to newly elected Philippine President Benigno Aquino III when he assumed office in 2010. But the government dismissed the warnings as "too alarmist", according to the PICC. [2]
The shortcomings in preparedness were matched by deficiencies in response. In Thailand, environmental watchdogs have challenged the government to take responsibility for reacting too slowly to the disaster. "The blame for the floods is 30 per cent with nature and 70 per cent with the mismanagement of the authorities," said a representative of Thailand's Stop Global Warming Association. [3]
Read in detail at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23159
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