Poverty maximises the human cost of natural disasters

by Tim Wilson, January 15, 2010

I was going to write an article along these lines, but Richard Fleming from the Global Poverty Project did it for me. Like with climate change, the biggest threat from natural disasters isn’t an unforeseen or unpredictable event but the amplification of its impact caused by poverty.

Fleming correctly points out that there are plenty of equivalent natural disasters around the world in rich countries that take a much smaller toll on human life. The reason is because the population is wealthy and can a) cope with the disaster better such as fresh water supply and distribution channels for food, and b) less damage is done to the country that increases the events impact such as the Japanese buildings in earthquake prone areas built on springs.

The situation in Haiti is an absolute disaster. But in addition to delivering a band aid solution through post-disaster aid, we must promote economic development that means the next natural disaster in Haiti isn’t as severe and enables the Haitians to better manage the consequences.

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