A recent UN report, The Human Cost of Weather Associated with Disasters, shows that 157,000 people have died as a result of floods over the past 20 years.
The report also says that between 1995 and 2015, floods affected 2.3 billion people, accounting for 56% of all people affected by weather-related disasters - significantly more than any other type of disaster. with the weather.
A report and analysis prepared by the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR) and the Belgian Center for Disaster Epidemiology Research (CRED) states that 3,062 floods were recorded between 1995 and 2015, 47% of all weather-related disasters and 43% of all natural disasters are combined, which also includes geophysical hazards such as earthquakes and volcanoes.
Increased frequency and severity of floods
The report points to an alarming trend of floods affecting wider areas and at the same time becoming more severe. In addition, floods affect agriculture and food, exacerbating the problem of malnutrition in the poorer parts of the world.
Floods growing all over the world
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Flooding in Asia and Africa is greater than in other continents, but is an increased hazard elsewhere, according to the report. For example, in South America, 560,000 people suffered from floods annually between 1995 and 2004. By the next decade (2005-2014), that number had grown to 2.2 million, almost four times that number. In the first eight months of 2015, another 820,000 people were affected by flooding in the region.
This trend continued until the end of 2015, when overflowing rivers forced over 100,000 from their homes in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and Paraguay.
More lives lost
The report also says that flood fatalities have increased in many parts of the world. In 2007, floods killed 3,300 people in India and Bangladesh. In 2010, floods killed 2,100 people in Pakistan and another 1,900 in China, and in 2013 about 6,500 people were killed by floods in India.
Flood events get more serious
The nature of catastrophic floods has also changed in recent years, as flash floods, severe river and coastal floods have become more frequent. Moreover, urbanization has significantly increased the number of floods.
Floods and food shortages
Periodic flooding of agricultural land, especially in Asia, has had dire consequences in terms of lost production, food shortages and malnutrition in rural areas.
This situation can now be seen in Malawi, which experienced some of the worst floods in history in early 2015 and is now facing the worst food shortages in a decade.
In rural India, children in households exposed to repeated flooding were found to be shorter and underweight in rural India than those living in non-flooded villages, according to the report. Children who were flooded in their first year of life also suffered from the highest levels of chronic malnutrition due to the loss of agricultural production and interrupted food supplies.
Prevention of natural disasters
The report says that many of these impacts are preventable because floods - unlike most types of weather-related disasters - are amenable to primary prevention using available technologies such as dams and levees, while measures such as education for mothers. also appear to be effective in protecting children from flood-related malnutrition.
In its conclusion on floods, the report states:
“In view of the severe flood and socio-economic impacts, CRED and UNISDR believe that flood control should be viewed as a development issue as well as a humanitarian issue. Priority should be given to cost-effective mitigation measures in poor regions with a high risk of repeated flooding, as well as programs to prevent malnutrition.”
The report says there are effective low-cost flood protection solutions such as afforestation, reforestation, flood zoning, embankments, better warnings and wetland restoration.
Recently, 10 African countries, including Malawi, pledged to restore 31 million hectares of degraded and deforested land.
Recently, Sri Lanka and Indonesia have embarked on the restoration and protection of mangrove forests to increase coastal flood protection.
90% of major disasters are weather related
The report also looks at the broader causes of natural disasters over the past 20 years and finds that 90% of major disasters are the result of weather-related events such as floods, storms, heatwaves and droughts. In fact, only 6,457 weather-related disasters occurred during this time.
CRED classifies hydrological, meteorological and climatological events as weather-related hazards. Other disasters can result from geophysical hazards such as earthquakes and volcanoes, or biological hazards such as epidemics.
According to the report, between 2005 and 2014, there were an average of 335 weather-related disasters per year, an increase of 14% over 1995-2004 and nearly double the rate in 1985-1995.
More than 600,000 lives have been lost worldwide - an average of 30,000 people per year. More than 4 billion people have been injured, homeless or in need of emergency assistance, and 87 million homes have been damaged or destroyed by weather disasters over the past 20 years. While less frequent than floods, storms were found to be the deadliest type of weather-related disaster, accounting for 242,000 deaths or 40% of global weather-related deaths, with 89% of these deaths occurring in countries with more low income.
Asia bears the brunt of weather disasters, with more frequent events and more people killed and injured than any other continent. This is mainly due to Asia's large and diverse area, including several river basins, floodplains and other areas at high risk from natural disasters, as well as high population densities in areas prone to natural disasters. A total of 2,495 weather-related disasters occurred in Asia between 1995 and 2015, resulting in 3.7 billion deaths and 332,000 deaths.
In terms of countries, of the five countries affected by the most natural disasters, the most severe recently are the United States (472) and China (441), India (288), the Philippines (274) and Indonesia, (163), making up the first five.
Economic losses
These weather-related disasters amounted to an economic loss of $ 1.891 trillion. Doll. USA. However, the report highlights data gaps. Only 35% of records contain information on economic losses and that economic losses from weather-related disasters are likely to be much higher than recorded. UNISDR estimates that the true loss rate from natural disasters, including earthquakes and tsunamis, is between $ 250 billion and $ 300 billion. USA per year.
Introducing the report, Ms Margareta Walstrom, then Head of UNISDR, said: “Weather and climate are major drivers of disaster risk, and this report shows that the world is paying a high price for the lives lost. Economic losses are a major development challenge for many least developed countries that are struggling with climate change and poverty.
“In the long term, the Paris COP XXI agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions will make a significant contribution to reducing damage and loss from natural disasters, which are driven in part by global warming and rising sea levels. It is now necessary to reduce existing levels of risk and avoid creating new risk by providing information to the public and private investors and not increasing the impact of people and economic assets on natural disasters on floodplains, overlying coastlines or other places inappropriate for human settlement.”
Professor Debarati Guha-Sapir, head of CRED, said: “Climate change, climate variability and weather events pose threats to the overall Sustainable Development Goal of poverty eradication. We need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and address other risk factors such as unplanned urban development, environmental degradation and early warning gaps. All of this requires ensuring that people are informed about the risks and strengthening institutions that manage disaster risk.”
The report concludes that the economic losses from weather and climate-related natural disasters are highly dependent on the increased exposure of people and economic assets. Better management, mitigation and deployment of early warnings can save more lives in the future.
