Super Typhoon Bopha wasn't the only one this year. More to come next
year
Although the final toll isn’t in
yet from Super Typhoon Bopha, which devastated the southern Philippine islands
of Mindanao and Visayas, United Nations agencies say fewer people have died so
far in 2012 than in previous years in natural disasters.
However, such calamities claimed
more lives in Asia between January and October than anywhere else on the
planet, What’s more, analysts expect the toll to rise in future years as
populations and industries expand in a region that already houses the world’s
largest number of urban residents and as weather events grow ever more severe
because of climate change. Growing populations are pushing more and more onto
flood plains and environmentally vulnerable regions where they are disastrously
at risk, as in the Compostela Valley in northern Mindanao, which had been
environmentally devastated by illegal mining and logging before being hit 10
days ago.
Tropical Storm Bopha, known as
Pablo in the Philippines, is a case in point. PAGASA, the national weather
forecasting agency, reported eight days in advance that the storm was on its
way and described its track. People were moved into typhoon shelters in
Mindanao and the Visayas, which bore the brunt of the storm, dubbed a super
typhoon generating sustained winds of more than 200 km per hour.
Despite whatever preparedness the
government was able to put in place, at least 700 died, the bulk of them in the
Campostela Valley, with hundreds still missing. Another 300 tuna fishermen from
General Santos City, at the southern tip of Mindanao, were caught at sea when
the storm hit and most are feared dead. It is perhaps unfair to make comparisons,
but Hurricane Sandy, a storm of similar magnitude that swept the eastern
seaboard of the United States, generating three-meter storm surges in New York
and other states, is believed to have killed 85 people, still a sizeable number
but nowhere near what has too often befallen Asian regions.
That is because in too many parts
of Asia, including the Philippines, too many people who are unlucky enough to
be scraping out a living on the margins of an unregulated economy are left to
the elements, as one observer told Asia Sentinel. Likewise, Very Severe
Cyclonic Storm Nargis, which hit Burma in May 2008, hit an utterly unprepared
country, killing at least 138,000 people – and that number was picked because
the government at that point stopped counting for fear of political fallout.
Another 55,000 were thought to be missing.
“Cities are growing. There will
be even more people and factories. If you think we have a problem now, we will
have even more in the future,” said Jerry Velasquez, head of the Asia-Pacific
office for the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction. The agency estimates the
number of people living in flood-prone urban areas in East Asia may reach 67
million by 2060.
“…it is the world’s poorest
communities within lower and middle-income countries that are most exposed.
Losses of income among these groups is already extreme,” according to the
Switzerland-based DARA, an NGO seeking to improve the quality and effective of
aid for vulnerable populations. “The world’s principal objectives for poverty reduction,
the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), are therefore under comprehensive
pressures, in particular as a result of climate change.
The impact for rural and coastal
communities in the lowest-income settings implies serious threats for food security
and extreme poverty.”
The Belgian-based Center for
Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), which maintains a database of
natural disasters worldwide, called for more regional cooperation on disaster
data gathering, more work translating science for policymakers and the public,
and more grassroots research on the needs of those affected, especially
farmers.
Below are 10 highlights from the
preliminary 2012 data on natural disasters in 28 Asian countries, released by
the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction and CRED on Dec. 11. Countries in the
region reported 83 disasters - mostly floods - in 2012, which killed some 3,100
people, affected 64.5 million and left behind US$15 billion in damage. That
figure could rise with Bopha, which is estimated to have left millions in
Mindanao without aid.
Worldwide, according to the two
agencies, 231 disasters killed some 5,400 people, affected 87 million and
caused $44.6 billion in damage. From 1950 to 2011, nine out of 10 people
affected by disasters worldwide were in Asia.
One of the region’s hardest-hit
countries this year (and this past decade) was the Philippines. Since 2002, the
country has had 182 recorded disasters, which killed almost 11,000 people. This
figure does not include casualties from Tropical Storm Bopha, nicknamed Pedro
in the Philippines. As Dec. 4, more than 600 were listed as dead with 800 are
reported missing.
Of the top five disasters that
created the most damage this year, three were in China, and the other two were
in Pakistan and Iran. Cumulatively, these events resulted in an estimated $13.3
billion in damage. China led the list of most disasters in 2012 (18), followed
by Philippines (16), Indonesia (10), Afghanistan (9) and India (5). China was
called the only “multi-hazard”-prone country. In the others, including
Pakistan, 85 percent of damage came from one event, calling into question
efforts to cultivate “multi-hazard” resiliency, said CRED.
Two-hazard countries included
Afghanistan (drought and flood); Bangladesh and Vietnam (flood and storm); and
India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Sri Lanka (flood and earthquake). In the past
decade, Indonesia and the Philippines have had many disasters but relatively
few affected people, while Bangladesh and Thailand have had fewer disasters and
more affected, while Pakistan and Vietnam fell in between the two categories.
These numbers offer a sign of how prepared these respective countries were to
face emergencies, researchers noted.
Pakistan suffered large-scale
loss of life from floods for the third successive year; from August to October,
480 people died in floods. June-July floods in China affected over 17 million
people and caused the most economic loss in the region -- US$4.8 billion.
(With reporting by IRIN, a
service of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)
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