Badish records 520,758 deaths due to severe weather since 1970: World Meteorological Organization
Dhaka, May 24 (IANS) Bangladesh has the highest death toll from extreme weather, climate and water-related phenomena in Asia, with 520,758 deaths from 281 events between 1970 and 2021, according to a report by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO).
The World Meteorological Organization released a report for the quadrennial World Meteorological Congress, which opened Tuesday with a high-level dialogue on accelerating and scaling up work to ensure early warning services reach everyone on Earth by the end of 2027, according to Xinhua.
Asia accounted for 47 percent of all reported deaths worldwide, with tropical cyclones being the leading cause of reported deaths. The report said that Tropical Cyclone Nargis in 2008 resulted in 138,366 deaths.
It added that extreme weather, climate and water-related events caused 11,778 reported disasters between 1970 and 2021, with more than two million deaths and $4.3 trillion in economic losses.
According to the report, more than 90 percent of deaths reported worldwide have occurred in developing countries.
“Unfortunately, the most vulnerable communities bear the brunt of weather, climate and water-related risks,” said WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas.
“In the past, both Myanmar and Bangladesh have suffered loss of life amounting to tens or even hundreds of thousands of people. Thanks to early warnings and disaster management, these catastrophic death rates are a thing of the past, thank God. Early warnings save lives,” said the Secretary-General.
The World Meteorological Organization report stated that the United States alone incurred $1.7 trillion in economic losses, which represents 39 percent of the global total in 51 years.
She said that LDCs and SIDS suffer a disproportionately high cost in relation to the size of their economies.
Improved early warnings and coordinated disaster management have reduced the number of human casualties over the past half century despite rising economic losses, according to the report.
The World Meteorological Organization compiled the figures as an update of the Atlas of Deaths and Economic Losses from Weather, Climate and Hydro Extremes, which initially covered the 50-year period 1970-2019, based on the Research Center on the Epidemiology of Disaster Emergencies. Database.
– Jans
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