DisastersMillions displaced as a result of climate-related disasters, building in hazard-prone areas
In the last seven years, an estimated one person every second has been displaced by a disaster, with 19.3 million people forced to flee their homes in 2014 alone. In 2014, 17.5 million people were forced to flee their homes by disasters brought on by weather-related hazards such as floods and storms, and 1.7 million by geophysical hazards such as earthquakes. Climate change is expected to exacerbate the situation in the future, as severe weather hazards become more frequent and intense. Man-made factors — such as rapid economic development, urbanization, and population growth in hazard-prone areas – have also contributed to the the overall increase in disaster displacement.
In the last seven years, an estimated one person every second has been displaced by a disaster, with 19.3 million people forced to flee their homes in 2014 alone. Disaster displacement is on the rise, and experts say that as policy leaders around the world advance toward the adoption of a post-2015 global agenda, the time to address the problem is now.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center (IDMC) of the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) the other day released its global report, The Global Estimates: People displaced by disasters. The report shows how, in 2014, 17.5 million people were forced to flee their homes by disasters brought on by weather-related hazards such as floods and storms, and 1.7 million by geophysical hazards such as earthquakes.
“The millions of lives devastated by disasters is more often a consequence of bad man-made structures and policies, than the forces of mother nature,” said Jan Egeland, secretary general of NRC. “A flood is not in itself a disaster, the catastrophic consequences happen when people are neither prepared nor protected when it hits”.
NRC notes that the report points to the man-made factors — such as rapid economic development, urbanization, and population growth in hazard-prone areas — which drive an overall increasing trend in disaster displacement.
“These factors are a toxic mix, because when such hazards strike there are more homes and people in their path, and therefore flight becomes necessary for survival” said director of IDMC, Alfredo Zamudio. Climate change is also expected to exacerbate the situation in the future, as severe weather hazards become more frequent and intense.
The report argues that these drivers are increasing the number of people becoming displaced, and the risk that their displacement becomes a long-term problem. Today, the likelihood of being displaced by a disaster is 60 percent higher than it was four decades ago, and an analysis of thirty-four cases reveals that disaster displacement can last for up to twenty-six years.
People in both rich and poor countries can be caught in protracted, or long-term, displacement. In the United States, over 56,000 people are still in need of housing assistance following Hurricane Sandy in 2012, and 230,000 people have been unable to establish new homes in Japan following the 2011 earthquake, tsunami and nuclear accident.
