More than 236.000 people have been killed in disasters in 2010, said the UN on Wednesday on the occasion of International Day for Disaster Reduction.
The newly released figures show that 256 million people have been affected by various types of disasters such as earthquakes, floods, tropical storms and landslides from the beginning of the year.
According to estimation from Center for Research in the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), these disasters have cost 81 billion US dollar from January this year up until September 1. In the first six months alone, the world suffered 70 billion in loss due to the frequent outbreak of disasters.
With the world’s cities never having been so at risk of disruption by disasters as they are now, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Wednesday underscored the need for wide participation in bolstering the resilience of urban areas to hazards.
Changes in weather patterns have coincided with shifts in human society, as more than half of the world’s population now lives in cities. – If earthquakes, floods or storm surges were deadly in the past, they are deadlier still in an increasingly urbanized world, the secretary-general said.
Cities around the globe must boost investment and planning to save lives and cut the cost of recovery from a growing number of natural disasters, a senior UN official said on Wednesday.
– Businesses and international financial institutions should join in a worldwide effort to head off or at least lessen the impact of floods, storms and earthquakes, Margareta Wahlström.
Wahlstrom, special representative on the issue for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, said that with global warming the number of disasters was increasing. – Their cost is climbing dramatically from year to year, she added.
Kilde: www.worldbank.org
