Disasters And Development
Disasters and development a Plan perspective.
The impact of a natural disaster is anything but natural: it is based on inequalities. Poverty increases the ‘death to disaster’ ratio. According to the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, between 1991 and 2000 in the richest countries there were 23 deaths per disaster, compared with 1,052 deaths per disaster in the poorest countries. The absolute numbers of people killed in disasters have been rising since the mid-1980s, but falling slightly as a proportion of overall population. However, when mega-disasters such as the Asian tsunami of 2004 are discounted, the data shows that average deaths per year from small and medium-scale climatic disasters more than doubled from nearly 6,000 in 1980 to over 14,000 in 2006, outpacing population growth.
According to UN disaster risk reduction (DRR) experts: The rapid growth in the number of small-scale climatic disasters and of mortality in these events tends to indicate that extensive risk is increasing rapidly.’
The Vulnerability Atlas of India puts the Indian subcontinent as among the worlds most disaster prone areas with more than 57% of the land vulnerable to earthquakes, 8% of the land vulnerable to cyclones, and 5% of the land (40 million Hectares) vulnerable to floods.
India has witnessed some of the worst disasters in recent history. The super cyclone in Orissa, the earthquake in Latur, Maharashtra, Kashmir and Gujarat, the Indian Ocean Tsunami and the annual flood in parts of the country and drought in others are examples of some of the intensive mega disasters which have affected the country. The history of religious and caste intolerance and conflicts, rising inequities, struggle for existence, competition over scarce resources and livelihoods, congestion in urban areas has fuelled social and political tensions.
Throughout the world Plan offices...
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