ABSTRACT

A consensus is beginning to emerge that local institutions, governments and development agencies have to pay greater attention to building resilience against natural disasters. This culminated in the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) in Kobe in January, 2005. Climate change reinforces this concern, as its impacts are already evident, with more droughts, floods, storms and heat waves, drawing resources away from development (World Bank, 2009). The present study seeks to build on earlier work (notably World Bank, 2006; Birkmann,

2006; Kahn, 2005; Gaiha et al., 2007, 2008, among others) by identifying the factors associated with their frequency and the resulting mortality in South Asia. Drawing together the main findings, some observations will be made from a policy perspective to focus on key elements of a disaster reduction strategy. Natural disasters affect household welfare in three distinct ways: loss of physical integrity,

assets and income. Injuries, fatalities and health epidemics compromise the quality of life.2 Loss of assets is equally common. Houses, for example, are highly vulnerable to the damaging impact of earthquakes, high winds, volcanic eruptions, landslides and floods. Loss of income from flooded arable land, damaged food crops and reduced agricultural production may be temporary or of a long-term nature. Few would question the rising cost of natural disasters – especially in developing countries.

The Indian Ocean tsunami in December 2004 killed over 250,000 people, followed by the October 2005 earthquake centred on Kashmir that killed tens of thousands and left over 3 million homeless.3 Meanwhile, poor harvests and pests threaten famine in the Sahel and Southern Africa. The overall picture of disaster impacts is one of large-scale human suffering, loss of lives and a precipitous rise in financial costs. The global costs of natural disasters have risen 15-fold since the 1950s.4