Asia is most disaster prone region – UN report

MANILA, Philippines - Asia again topped the list as the most disaster-prone region in the world, both in terms of number of disasters and victims, the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) said recently.

One of the most damaging disasters was typhoon “Pablo,” which left at least 1,900 dead or missing in Mindanao last December. It also destroyed more than 210,000 houses, vital infrastructure, and vast tracts of agricultural lands.

The UNISDR said thousands of people died in extreme disasters in 2012, and property worth more than $100 billion was lost for the third year in a row.

Based on UNISDR figures, there were 310 disaster events in 2012, which killed more than 9,300 people, displaced 106 million others, and damaged $138 billion worth of property mainly in the United States, Italy and China.

“A review of economic losses caused by major disaster events since 1980 shows that since the mid-90s there has been a rise in economic losses and this has turned into an upward trend,” UNISDR director Elizabeth Longworth said.

“Despite no mega-disaster such as a major urban earthquake, economic losses are conservatively estimated in the region at $138 billion,” Longworth added.

The Americas accounted for 63 percent of the economic losses, mainly due to hurricane “Sandy” and widespread drought, causing damage of $50 billion and $20 billion, respectively.

Europe was hit by two long cold waves at the start and end of the year which killed almost 1,000 people.

 Drought and floods also severely affected many regions in Africa, and were responsible for nearly 80 percent of victims killed or injured by disasters in 2012, the Center for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) said.

However, since disasters mostly occur in poorer countries, the economic losses were low.

“Even so, the floods of Pakistan cost nearly 2 percent of its annual GDP, which is a lot to recover,” CRED director Debby Guha-Sapir said.

“Disasters are a major problem in all poor countries and pose threats to global security.