Disasters displaced over 32 mln people in 2012, rising trend
forecast
People sit in front of a submerged building in the Patani community in Nigeria's Delta state October 15, 2012. REUTERS/Afolabi Sotunde
LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - Natural disasters
forced 32.4 million people from their homes in 2012, with climate and weather
hazards such as floods and storms causing 98 percent of the displacement, a
report said on Monday.
The total was almost double the 2011 number, as major floods
hit India and Nigeria last year, accounting for 41 percent of global disaster
displacement, according to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC).
The figures capture only the impact of rapid-onset crises and exclude droughts,
which are slower-moving and harder to track.
In the two biggest events of 2012, monsoon floods uprooted
6.9 million people in India's northeast, and in Nigeria 6.1 million people were
newly displaced by widespread flooding in the rainy season.
Over the past five years, some 144 million people have had
to leave their homes in 125 nations because of natural disasters, the vast
majority staying in their own countries, the report said. The figures vary
sharply from year to year according to the number and scale of the largest
disasters.
But in general, the risk of displacement is expected to rise
in line with global trends that make people more vulnerable, the IDMC warned.
Exacerbating factors include population growth, rapid urbanisation and the
growing exposure of vulnerable communities and their homes and livelihoods to
hazards, it said.
"Due to improved life-saving measures, mortality rates
associated with major weather-related hazards are falling, yet increasing
numbers of disaster survivors will still be displaced from their homes,"
the report said. From 2008 to 2012, climate and weather hazards accounted for
83 percent of disaster-driven displacement.
Human-made climate change is expected to increase the
frequency and severity of weather-related hazards in the longer term, the
report noted.
"The level of
displacement risk will be greatly influenced by how well countries and
communities are able to strengthen disaster prevention, preparedness and
response and adapt to new realities," it added.
POOR WORST-AFFECTED
Over the past five years, four fifths of disaster-driven
displacement has occurred in Asia. But in 2012, Africa had a record high for
the region of 8.2 million people displaced, over four times more than in any of
the previous four years.
The report highlighted how rich countries are also affected
by disasters, with 1.3 million people forced from their homes in 2012. The
United States was among the top 10 countries with the highest levels of new
displacement, at more than 900,000 people, largely due to Hurricane Sandy in
October last year and forest fires.
Nonetheless, people in poor countries remain by far the
worst-affected, the report said, making up 98 percent of the global total
displaced by disasters between 2008 and 2012.
"In the U.S. following Hurricane Sandy, most of those displaced
were able to find refuge in adequate temporary shelter while displaced from
their own homes,” Clare Spurrell, IDMC's chief spokesperson, said in a
statement. “Compare this to communities
in Haiti, where hundreds of thousands are still living in makeshift tents over
three years after the 2010 earthquake mega-disaster, and you see a very
different picture".
Haiti had displacement levels equivalent to 19 percent of
its total population, or 1.9 million people, from 2008 to 2012 - the highest
relative level experienced by any country - due to the earthquake and a
succession of storms.
Other countries that were badly hit in 2012 were China, the
Philippines and Pakistan, with displacement caused by storms and their
after-effects.
The year was noteworthy for the relatively low number of
people uprooted by earthquakes and volanic eruptions - about 680,000.
Around a quarter of countries where people were displaced by
disasters in 2012 were also affected by conflict, the report noted. "Here,
vulnerability to disaster triggered by floods is frequently further compounded
by hunger, poverty and violence; resulting in a ‘perfect storm’ of risk factors
that lead to displacement,″ Spurrell said.
Recently, IDMC said that the total number of people
internally displaced by armed conflict, generalised violence and human rights
violations worldwide as of the end of 2012 was estimated to be 28.8 million.
CALL FOR BETTER DATA
The IDMC figures count people who are newly displaced each
year. But the number of those stuck in long-term displacement - who cannot go
back after their homes and livelihoods are destroyed - is unknown, the report
said.
"Displaced populations are at increased risk of being
neglected, unprotected and left without durable solutions to their displacement
the longer they are displaced," it said.
IDMC described the lack of information on the cumulative
number of people displaced by disasters as "an important blind spot",
and urged governments to systematically collect reliable data on the situation
of displaced people.
“Currently the information available is biased, often only
focusing on the most visible people who take shelter in official evacuation
sites or camps," Spurrell said. "We need to know more about those who
seek refuge with families and friends, people who are repeatedly displaced by smaller
disasters, or those who are stuck in prolonged displacement following a
disaster – not just those that make headlines.”
Author: Megan Rowling, Published on Mon, 13 May 2013
Source: http://www.trust.org/item/20130513114557-uo68q/?source=hptop
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