PRESS CONFERENCE BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION

PRESS CONFERENCE BY SPECIAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR DISASTER RISK REDUCTION




It pays to be well prepared, particularly where natural hazards and disaster risk reduction were concerned, the top United Nations official responsible for mitigating disaster risks worldwide, said today.


Addressing correspondents at a Headquarters press conference on the upcoming one-year anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11 2011, Margareta Wahlström, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Disaster Risk Reduction, said Japan had shown the world that despite the major tragedy it had suffered on that day, prevention and preparedness paid off. “Building codes pay, early warning systems pay, it saves lives. Drills, training, public education and awareness also pay off and save lives,” she said.


If none of those things had been consistently implemented in Japan as they had been for decades, last year’s horror would have been much worse, Ms. Wahlström asserted. A remarkable testimony to the quality of the buildings was the fact that the tsunami, and not the earthquake, had been responsible for the main destruction to the buildings. Today, the main focus remained on the interaction between assets — in this case, the nuclear power plants and similar industries, such as the petro-chemical industry — with the potential to damage the environment.


She said there were many lessons learned from last year’s earthquake, and the marking of its first anniversary in a few days was an opportunity to again recognize the importance of Japanese education about disasters over hundreds of years, and to drive the work globally that was being done in the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) on how to reduce disaster risk in order to preserve the development assets of countries and communities.


The world had learnt, for instance, that the Japan disaster was one of the most globally destructive in history, she said. Last year was the peak year of disaster loses so far in recorded history, with total losses at a staggering $380 billion at least, two thirds higher than the previous record with Hurricane Katrina. The losses last year mainly stemmed from earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand, she said, explaining that earthquakes were the costliest and deadliest of disasters. In addition to those, the world had also experienced several other major events, including flooding in Thailand and many other countries.


“So the main message is that this is an increasing — and very rapidly increasing — trend, with increasingly economic losses,” she stated. Globally, the disaster mortality was proportionally declining because countries were getting much better at early warning systems and preparedness. But the economics of disasters was becoming a major threat to several countries, and today, 50 per cent of the world’s population lived in highly vulnerable areas and was thus exposed to hazards and disaster risk.


Read the detailed press briefing at :- http://www.cdrn.org.in/show.detail.asp?id=23335