UN Conference On Natural Disasters Opens With Call For Better Mitigation Measures
Three weeks after a devastating Indian Ocean tsunami killed at least 160,000 people, the United Nations World Conference
on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) opened today in Kobe, Japan – site of a disastrous earthquake that claimed 40,000 lives 10
years ago – with a clarion call for better measures to mitigate the effects of natural hazards.
“All disaster-prone countries should adopt clear, goal-oriented disaster reduction policies and action plans underpinned
by dedicated structures and resources,” UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland told over 4,000 participants from
more than 150 countries, urging them to turn commitments into action and increase funding.
At the top of the agenda is a tsunami early warning system for the Indian Ocean, which experts say could have saved
scores of thousands of lives when gigantic waves from an undersea earthquake battered a dozen countries on 26 December,
injuring more than half a million people beyond the death toll and leaving 5 million others in desperate need of basic
services and at risk of deadly epidemics.
“We must draw and act on every lesson we can, and prevent such tragedies from occurring in the future,”
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in a videotaped message after the conference opened with a minute of silence in memory
of those who perished in last month’s disaster.
The UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has already laid out plans for a warning system,
including deep water buoys, tide gauges and a regional tsunami alert centre at a cost of $30 million to be operational
for the Indian Ocean by June 2006, expanding worldwide a year later. The system would alert people in coastal regions in
a tsunami’s path to evacuate hours before the devastating waves struck.
In 1968 UNESCO’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) launched a successful International Tsunami Warning
System for the Pacific, presently the only one in the world.
But tsunamis will not be the only disaster high on the agenda of the five-day conference as it draws up a 10-year global
action plan to mitigate the worst effects of other catastrophes, too, such as hurricanes and quakes, through early
warning systems, quake-proof buildings, accelerated response units and other measures to reduce the toll.
“Technology is not a cure-all. From Singapore to South Africa, experience shows us that people, not hardware, must be at
the centre of any successful disaster warning and preparedness measure,” Mr. Egeland said, stressing the need for
disaster education. “Children everywhere should be learning about living more safely with the natural hazards around
them, as a part of their basic life skills education.”
He proposed new funding, recommending that countries earmark a minimum of 10 per cent of the billions spent on disaster
relief for disaster risk reduction.
Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi pledged his Government’s support in enhancing regional cooperation and
promoting partnerships to help build a global culture of disaster prevention while Emperor Akihito, referring to Japan’s
own long-standing expertise in disaster reduction, outlined the need to cross natural boundaries to assist more
vulnerable communities in preparing themselves.
The conference presented “a precious opportunity to share mutual experiences, to protect lives and livelihoods of people
from natural disasters, by aiming to strengthen preparedness and to create a society where people can live in safety and
security,” the emperor said.
Various UN agencies will put forward specific mitigating strategies related to their sector during the week.
World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director James T. Morris, for example, is slated to address the gathering on
measures to augment emergency preparedness for food relief, while the Director of the Office for Outer Space Affairs
(OOSA), Sergio Camacho-Lara, will highlight the important role of space-based technologies in managing natural
disasters.
OOSA is playing a key role in facilitating capacity-building in developing countries to enable them to use space
technology during all phases of disaster management – from early warning to disaster reduction, rescue and
rehabilitation.