Today is the International Day for Disaster Reduction. Under the auspices of the UN, the event marks the launch of an annual campaign to foster awareness and bring about change in the way countries respond to natural disasters. And the world has seen its fair share this year: cyclone Nargis, which left hundreds of thousands dead, injured, or homeless in Burma; the massive and devastating earthquake in Sichuan province, China; a series of hurricanes that has left Haiti in a state of dire emergency. Climate change is exacerbating these yearly catastrophes, and, as Ban Ki-Moon has said, it is time that strategies to reduce their impact became “a key plank” in nations’ efforts towards reaching the Millennium Development Goals. 

This year’s campaign focuses on making hospitals safe from disaster. An obvious concept, perhaps, but one that is all too often overlooked. Campaign organisers make the economic case for making hospitals and health facilities disaster-safe, either when designing them from scratch or by retro-fitting existing buildings. Hopefully by seeing the issue from a cost-effectiveness angle, thrifty governments can be persuaded to take it more seriously.

Zoë Mullan

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 8th, 2008 at 9:51 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can trackback from your own site.