Slum dwellers most vulnerable to disasters says Red Cross by Reuters / Red Cross 2:46am 1st Sep, 2010   Sep 2010    Slum dwellers most vulnerable to disasters-Red Cross, by Katy Migiro.(Reuters)    Over one billion slum dwellers in developing countries are vulnerable to disasters because they live in congested and poorly built houses without emergency services, the Red Cross says in a new report.    Fewer people die from cyclones, floods and earthquakes in countries with planned housing, infrastructure and emergency teams, but lack of financial capacity in developing countries, worsens the impact of disasters.    "A very large deficit exists in the infrastructure and services that reduce disaster risk for much of the population in Latin America, Africa and Asia," said Bekele Geleta, Secretary General of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). "We must bridge this urban risk divide or it will be further exposed in a very cruel way by climate change in the coming years."    The report says that Africa, which is often considered predominantly rural, now has an urban population of 412 million.    "For the first in human history more people live in towns and cities than in the countryside, but the world has not kept pace with this change," Geleta said.    "This is why more people live in slums or informal settlements than ever before which will lead to more people being affected by urban disasters like the terrible earthquake which struck Haiti earlier this year."    Haiti''s capital Port-au-Prince is one of the most densely populated cities in Latin America, home to 2 million people.    Its rapid unplanned growth hampered rescue efforts because there were not access roads between streets, just a patchwork of unmarked corridors.    The report criticises major aid agencies for not supporting community-led initiatives which are essential for preventing and coping with disasters.    "The crisis of urban poverty, rapidly growing informal settlements and growing numbers of urban disasters arises from the failure of governments to adapt their institutions to urbanisation," said David Satterthwaite, lead author of the report.    The links between urban poverty and disaster risk will be increased by climate change, the report says.    It adds that between a third and a half of the 2.57 billion residents of developing country cities live in slums. They are mostly at risk because they live in dangerous sites without proper services.    Over half of Africa''s 37 biggest cities, each home to more than one million residents, are built on low-lying land.    For example, a sea rise of 50 centimetres would forcibly displace over two million people from the Egyptian port city of Alexandria, the report said.    Population growth and urban violence are also contributing to urban disasters, the report said.    Seismic events, such as earthquakes and tsunamis, killed the greatest number of people between 2000 and 2008, averaging 50,184 people per year, the report said.    Floods disrupted the most lives, with an average of 99 million people affected each year between 2000 and 2008.    Increasingly powerful storms, floods and heat waves brought by climate change will intensify the disaster risks faced by the urban poor, whose numbers are increasing by 10 million per year.    Sept 2010    World Disasters Report 2010: Focus on urban risk. (Irish Red Cross)    A key finding of the report is that between one-third and one-half of the population of most cities in low- and middle-income nations live in informal settlements and it is common in such cities for the local authorities to refuse to extend to them all the infrastructure and essential services that do so much to reduce disaster risk.    Existing measures of risk and vulnerability are criticized for undervaluing the impact of disaster losses on slum dwellers in favour of measuring the impact of disasters on large economies and major infrastructure where loss of life may be minimal but economic damage is considerable.    The report urges governments and NGOs to address the urban risk divide which exists between cities that are well-governed and well-resourced compared to those that struggle with a lack of resources, knowledge and will to ensure a well-functioning urban environment.    Bekele Geleta, IFRC Secretary General, said: "For the first time in human history more people live in towns and cities than in the countryside, but the world has not kept pace with this change. This is why more people live in slums or informal settlements than ever before and this will lead to more people being affected by urban disasters like the terrible earthquake which struck Haiti earlier this year.”    The report states that the root cause of why so many people are affected by urban disasters is that a billion people live in poor-quality homes on dangerous sites with no hazard-reducing infrastructure and no services. In any given year, over 50,000 people can die as a result of earthquakes and 100 million can be affected by floods and the worst-affected are most often vulnerable city dwellers.    "A very large deficit exists in the infrastructure and services that reduce disaster risk for much of the population in Latin America, Africa and Asia,” says Geleta. "We must bridge this urban risk divide or it will be further exposed in a very cruel way by climate change in the coming years.”    A recurring theme of this year''s report is that good urban governance is essential to ensuring people are empowered and engaged in the development of their urban environment and not marginalized and left exposed to disasters, climate change, violence and ill health.    David Satterthwaite, World Disasters Report lead writer and Senior Fellow at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), said: "People living in well governed cities are among those who benefit from the world''s best quality of life and highest life expectancies. Generally, the more urbanized a nation, the stronger its economy, the higher the average life expectancy and the literacy rate, and the stronger the democracy, especially at local level.    "The crisis of urban poverty, rapidly growing informal settlements and growing numbers of urban disasters arises from the failure of governments to adapt their institutions to urbanization. It stems also in part from the failure of aid agencies to help them to do so – most aid agencies have inadequate or no urban policies and have long been reluctant to support urban development at a sufficient scale.”    The report finds that forcible eviction is a constant threat to the urban poor. Large-scale evictions by public authorities displace millions every year, sometimes for re-development or beautification projects, or simply to target and remove what they consider undesirable groups.    The World Disasters Report points out that zoning and planning controls often exclude a large part of the urban population from legal land markets and advocates that building standards should be applied in a way that is appropriate to the local context including affordability and resistance to extreme weather.    The location of cities will affect the types of climate hazards to which urban communities are exposed. Over half of 37 cities in Africa with more than 1 million residents are in the low-elevation coastal zone. A sea level rise of just 50 cm would lead to over 2 million people in Alexandria, Egypt, needing to abandon their homes. In the vulnerable east coast of Africa, potential costs of 10 per cent of GDP have been calculated to help vulnerable communities adapt to the consequences of climate change and the growing incidences of weather-related disasters. Visit the related web page
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