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| December 14, 2006 |
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| 99,000 People Killed By Natural Disasters in 2005 |
WASHINGTON - December 14, 2006. "Millions of people are missing out on vital aid despite record-breaking donations from governments and the public, a report says.
In 2005, emergency aid reached at least $17 billion - outstripping any
other year, the World Disasters Report says. But while high-profile cases
such as the Indian Ocean tsunami and Hurricane Katrina attracted donors,
countless other crises were neglected, it says. It calls on governments,
aid agencies and the media to redress the balance. More than 99,000 people
were killed and 161 million affected by natural disasters last year,
according to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies (IFRC). ... The cost of the crises totaled about $160
billion - more than double the decade's annual average, the federation
says. ..." [BBC News Online]
"... The tsunami pushed disaster relief donations to record levels in
2005, drawing more than $5 billion from private individuals. The report
said each tsunami survivor benefited from about $1,241, compared with $91
for the survivors of Hurricane Stan in Guatemala. The Red Cross pointed to
war in Congo and the famine in Malawi as examples of underreported and
under funded crises. The report proposed that donors make more money
available for aid agencies to use as they see fit, rather than for
specific disasters. It also called for greater emphasis on preventing
disasters through education and health care and more timely intervention
before a situation reaches breaking point. ..." [The Associated
Press/Factiva]
"... [The report] questioned why Hurricane Katrina, which killed about
1,300 people when it struck the US according to the Red Cross, generated
'40 times' more media coverage than the subsequent Hurricane Stan, which
killed 1,600 people in Guatemala. The Red Cross acknowledged that media
attention was not solely to blame and underlined that the way a few crises
overshadowed others 'may also reflect the limited capacity of the global
humanitarian system to respond,' as well as power politics. Slow onset
crises also suffered because there was poor monitoring, according to the
report, citing confusion over estimates of the death toll due to the
conflict in Darfur since 2003 ranging from 60,000 to 380,000. ... The
report warned that situations of deep misery that were not necessarily
caused by a sudden event were often sidelined, potentially leaving them to
fester. It called for ten percent of relief aid to be reserved for
mitigation. ..." [Agence France Presse/Factiva]
"... 'The past two years have seen unprecedented attention lavished on
disasters by the media, by the public and by aid organizations across the
world,' said IFRC Secretary General Markku Niskala in an introduction to
the report. 'Yet for every crisis that takes centre stage, there are a
dozen more waiting in the wings for a walk-on part.' The report identified
some of these as malnutrition and starvation due to drought in Malawi,
social decay and crime in Guatemala, childbirth mortality in Nepal, and
the death at sea of hundreds of would-be migrants from Africa to Europe.
..." [Reuters/Factiva]
Source: The World Bank |
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