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Indonesia's average annual loss from disasters exceeds $20 billion
The report underlines that disasters have brought economic losses to Asia-Pacific countries, including Indonesia. Therefore, mitigation efforts must not be ad hoc.
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Motorcyclists ride on the dried up Gajah Mungkur Dam in Wonogiri, Central Java. JP/Maksum Nur Fauzan (JP/Maksum Nur Fauzan)
T
he latest disaster report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), which identifies types of disasters and the economic losses they cause, should drive the Indonesian government to do more about disaster mitigation.
The report underlines that disasters have brought economic losses to Asia-Pacific countries, including Indonesia. Therefore, the mitigation efforts must not be ad hoc.
"Disaster mitigation can no longer be an ad hoc program for the regions. It must be systematic and seriously planned," National Development Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro said, responding to the UNESCAP report.
UNESCAP launched on Friday the biennial publication of the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report 2019.
Armida Salsiah Alisjahbana, the executive secretary of UNESCAP, said the reports showed how countries in Asia Pacific were facing a new climate-related disaster closely linked to poverty and inequality of income and opportunity.
The report revealed that slow-onset disasters account for nearly two thirds of disaster losses in the region. When added to the region's risk space, annual economic losses could more than quadruple to US$675 billion.
Slow-onset disasters refer to disasters that take a long period of time, even decades, to have an impact, such as environmental degradation and desertification, as compared to rapid disasters such as earthquakes, tsunamis or cyclones, which have an immediate impact.
