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Asia / Pacific: Tsunami alerts show how vulnerable hundreds of millions are to disasters
8 Oct 2009
By World Vision staff
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Flooding is a problem in the Philippines after the recent typhoons.
Photo by World Vision staff.
©2009 World Vision International |
The most recent massive quakes off the coasts of the Philippines and the Solomon Islands - coming on the back of a string of typhoons, floods, earthquakes and tsunamis - have shown how hundreds of millions of people living in the Asia Pacific are at risk from major catastrophes.
The latest quakes measuring 7.8 and 7.3 struck between Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands and led to a tsunami warning for the entire Southwest Pacific – later withdrawn – while a 6.7 quake struck off the coast of the Philippines. Neither caused damage.
Eight countries within the Asia Pacific region have suffered a range of major disaster impacts within the last 11 days. Many countries also sit on the ‘Ring of Fire’ making them prone not just to earthquakes but also to volcanic eruptions.
“What these disasters show us is how ill prepared the Asia Pacific region is to disasters. Buildings are not quake proof. Early warning systems need to be strengthened. Disaster response mechanisms cannot cope with the thousands who need aid when crises strike and the risks are increasing thanks to growing urbanization and the impacts of climate change,” said Geoff Shepherd, World Vision’s director for Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs for the Asia Pacific.
For example, Metro Manila (population 11.5 million) – still reeling from Typhoon Ketsana –is at great risk from a major earthquake as it sits on a fault line. An estimated 40 per cent of total buildings would be damaged, more than 33,000 people killed and 147,000 injured by a major quake. It is not a question of if, but when.
World Vision’s own Planet Prepare Report (www.wvasiapacific.org/climatechange/), which looks at the vulnerability of coastal communities in the Asia Pacific, states that 75% of the 634 million people living less than 10 metres above sea level and near the coast, live in Asia. These low elevation zones also have higher rates of urbanisation than the rest of the world.
Shepherd said: “Countries are well aware of the risks and yet people are actually migrating into cities and into danger. Jakarta, Manila, Yangon, the economic belt of coastal China, these are all highly vulnerable to typhoons, flooding and in many cases quakes. Migration into cities to escape poverty is a good thing but only if there is proper zoning, proper preparedness planning and decent protective infrastructure. Governments need to get more serious, more quickly about protecting their people.”
In addition, poor people living in rural and coastal communities are also ill prepared to deal with changing climate patterns that would destroy crops, and livelihoods - perhaps for good - creating greater vulnerabilities and increasing their dependency on government.
World Vision is one of the agencies attending the talks on climate change at the UN in Bangkok and has been pushing for stronger mitigation and adaptation measures to be adopted.
Dr. Brett Parris, Director of Climate Policy for World Vision International, said: “We urgently need wealthy countries to significantly lift their level of ambition on emission reduction targets and adaptation financing for developing countries. At-risk nations need to get even more serious about protecting their populations and including disaster risk reduction in their national adaptation plans.”
Meanwhile, Gerard Van Gramberg, Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs manager, who overseas World Vision’s disaster response work in the Pacific Islands, said people there were now more aware of the risk of tsunamis following the Samoa disasters.
“Islanders take earthquakes and tsunamis seriously but there is a general lack of preparedness and little understanding of the signs of one,” he said. More work was needed to educate and prepare people – work that World Vision was doing – but that needed more funding.
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