FILIPINOS killed by typhoons and other natural disasters tripled in the last 10 years, the latest United Nations-backed report said.
The report, titled “World Disasters Report [WDR] 2014: Focus on Culture and Risk,” stated that in the 2004-to-2013 period, disasters claimed the lives of 22,446 Filipinos, three times higher than the 7,251 recorded between 1994 and 2003.
The number of deaths in 2013 alone was higher than the total number of killed in the 1994-to-2003 period at 8,541. Typhoon Yolanda caused the most number of fatalities last year.
“[One of] the two deadliest natural disasters of 2013 were Typhoon Haiyan [Yolanda], which hit the Philippines in November and killed 7,986 people,” the report read.
The report also showed that the number of Filipinos affected by natural disasters nearly tripled in the last decade. Data showed that around 93.61 million Filipinos were affected by typhoons and other natural disasters between 2004 and 2013.
The number of Filipino affected by disasters only reached 32.53 million in the 1994-to-2003 period.
In 2013 alone, those affected by disasters reached 25.67 million, largely due to Yolanda, which affected 16 million people.
“In 2013, 49 percent of people reported affected were victims of storms. The most severe were Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, which affected 16 million people,” the report said. The latest WDR also showed that there is a need to take into consideration how disasters and risk influence culture.
The UN said many disaster-risk reduction (DRR) programs fail because they do not take into account the “cultural causes of vulnerability.”
One such example are the no-build zones implemented by the government in areas affected by Yolanda as a DRR measure.
However, the report said many residents affected by Yolanda have rebuilt their homes in areas considered as no-build zones.
“The power of attachment to a place is of immense significance for many people and could be considered one of the major cultural challenges for DRR. At the moment, this is not taken into account enough in DRR and CCA [climate-change adaptation], and knowledge from other disciplines is not being used to inform what is done,” the report explained.
In addition, the urban sprawl also makes it difficult to institute DRR policies and programs. One example, the report stated, is Metro Manila, which is the heart of trade, commerce and government in the Philippines.
The megacity of over 10 million is composed of seismically active areas caused by the West Valley Fault. This raises the risk for the millions who live and work in Metro Manila.
“The scale of urbanization in the 21st century and the concomitant changes in livelihoods and technologies have affected most people’s relationship with previous cultural norms of settlement and construction, and now pose a continuous challenge to the provision of safe, sustainable and affordable buildings,” the report added.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), which published WDR 2014, said most people who live in places that are exposed to serious hazards are aware of the risks they face.
However, people continue living in these areas because they need to or have no alternative. Coasts and rivers are good for fishing and farming; valley and volcanic soils are very fertile; drought alternates with good farming or herding.
Further, the IFRC said culture and beliefs, for example, in spirits or gods, or simple fatalism, enable people to live with risks and make sense of their lives in dangerous places.
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