October 02, 2007	Tuesday	Ramazan 19, 1428

RAWALPINDI, Oct 1: Asia, which is going through a major demographic shift as people move to cities, also has the highest incidence of disasters associated with avalanches, landslides, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms and industrial accidents, a new UN report released on Monday said.

Ill-equipped local authorities and lack of resources could mean that Asia will have the highest mortality rate for disasters.

Asia, along with Africa, has had the fastest increase in the incidence of natural and human-made disasters over the last three decades, according to the UN-HABITAT publication “Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007.”

“The report is an eye-opener as it clearly pinpoints Asia as a disaster magnet, with a crescendo of deadly events impacting mainly the poor,” UN-HABITAT Executive Director Anna Tibaijuka said.

Given the rapid rate of urbanisation in the continent, and little disaster preparedness, this could lead to an exponential increase in the number of casualties, she warned.

“Asia has staged some of the world’s worst natural and human-made disasters,” Ms Tibaijuka noted.

“Our generation has been branded with images of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami which caused some 230,000 deaths and made 1.5 million homeless, and by the Pakistan earthquake of October 2005 which killed 86,000 people and left millions homeless.”

The report addresses some of the most challenging threats to the safety and security of urban dwellers worldwide.

It finds the world’s poor are the worst affected by natural and human-made disasters, urban crime and violence, insecurity of tenure and forced eviction, regardless of their geographical location.

Globally, human-made disasters have seen a ten-fold increase from 1975 to 2006, with the greatest rates of increase in Asia and Africa.

From 1997 to 2006, 1,493 human-made disasters were recorded in Asia — more than double the number of disasters in Europe, the Americas and Oceania combined, and almost the same number as in the rest of the world (1,639) in the same period.

As in the rest of the world, Asia’s poor also bear much of the brunt of disasters.

The report notes that economic loss is the highest in Asia for all disasters, except for extreme temperatures, volcanic eruptions and industrial accidents.

In Pakistan, for example, the 2005 earthquake cost $5 billion in damages, approximately the same amount the World Bank lent the country over the last decade.

The report explores successful experiences in dealing with crime and violence, insecurity of tenure and forced eviction, and natural and human-made disasters.