Climate Change and Rising World floods
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Climate Change and Rising World floods*
24 Nov 2006 18:37:00 GMT
According to data released by the Belgium-based Centre for Research on
the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), the first half of 2006 saw a total
of 113 floods, representing 65 percent of all natural disasters - a
record high. The average for the first six months of the previous 10
years is 58 floods, making up 36.5 percent of disasters. CRED notes that
floods account for a growing proportion of all the disasters recorded in
its database.
CRED director Debarati Guha-Sapir writes in the centre's publication
CRED CRUNCH that climate change is causing more variation in
precipitation and populations are becoming more vulnerable, so there's a
need for the humanitarian community to shift its focus from disaster
response to managing risk.
Floods are having a rising impact on the livelihoods of people living in
rural areas, which is setting back development efforts. But the good
news is that something can be done.
In fact, "...floods are one of the disasters most amenable to prevention
and mitigation," Guha-Sapir writes. The answer lies with low-cost
engineering techniques, CRED says, although it doesn't go into detail.
The International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) also argues
there's plenty of knowledge about how to reduce the impact of floods on
vulnerable populations - but that needs to be shared and applied. The
floods that have displaced hundreds of thousands in east Africa are a
good reminder of the urgency of doing so.
"What is happening in Kenya, Somalia and Ethiopia is a call for more
concerted action to better prepare populations (for) the negative
impacts of climate changes," Salvano Briceno, ISDR director, says in a
press release. "Bangladesh is a good example of what a country can
achieve to reduce its vulnerability to floods."
Bangladesh has a good early warning system, and has invested in
preparing its population to evacuate and adopt land-planning practices
that reduce the impact of floods, according to ISDR. The country's
warning system was set up in the 1970s and now covers the whole country,
giving information about likely flooding one to two days in advance.
ISDR says regulations that have restricted development in flood plains
and wetlands have also contributed to reducing flood-related losses in
the last decade.
Given that nearly 2 million people are affected by the current flooding
in the Horn of Africa, governments there would do well to look at ways
of stopping heavy rains becoming major disasters. If the trend
identified by CRED continues, investment in reducing flood disaster risk
would be money well spent.