Disasters – A Challenge For Developing Countries

There are also many small-scale, local disasters that are not recorded in official statistics.3 Even more pronounced than the increase in the numbers of disaster events is the magnitude of the physical damage caused and particularly the  loss of human life.

Natural disasters are caused by extreme occurrences in nature for which society is unprepared. They destroy the basic conditions of life for the victims, who lack the resources to recover in the short or medium term. Disasters often have a very significant detrimental impact on past  devexlopment efforts.

Causes and effects

Due to their geographical location developing countries are particularly exposed to extreme natural phenomena. Storms, heavy rains and landslides are more frequent and severe in the subtropical and tropical regions of the South. Hydrometeorological, seismic, volcanic and other natural events pose a permanent ongoing threat to the people living in these regions. The comparatively low level of development, as evident in the fragile infrastructure, the poor

building fabric of housing, the vulnerability of productive activities, the low level of political

and social organization and the absence of warning systems, makes them more vulnerable to natural disasters. The doubling of the world population since 1950 to more than 6 billion and its impact on settlement patterns and natural resources also makes itself particularly felt in

the developing countries. Moreover, the rapid rise in world population has not just caused a drastic increase in the density of settlements; it has also altered their distribution pattern and land use. There is, for example, a growing migratory trend towards valleys and slopes under threat of flooding, land-slides and earthquakes, particularly on the outskirts of large and medium-sized

conurbations. These are growing too fast for the requisite planning and building regulations to be drafted and supervised. Modernization without the necessary safety precautions (e.g. when building bridges) increases the vulnerability to and risk of adverse impacts resulting from a natural

event.

Finally, another cause of the increase in natural disasters is the widespread human intervention in the climatic system9 and in the equilibrium of fragile ecosystems (forest clearance, soil erosion, single cropping practices).