Interrelationship between disasters and development

INTERRELATIONSHIP BETWEEN DISASTERS AND DEVELOPMENT

The severity of a disaster depends on both the physical nature of the extreme event and the nature of the human populations affected by the event. Different people, even within the same region, have different vulnerability to natural hazards. The important human factors that tend to influencedisasts er severity are-

• Wealth affects vulnerability in several ways
• The poor cannot afford housing that withstands extreme weather
• They do not have insurance policies and cannot afford resources needed for disaster response
• They do not have access to health care
• However, 
• Coastal areas have expensive beachside real estate populated by the rich making them highly vulnerable to tsunamis, storm surge and other coastal hazards
• The rich lose more money due to disasters since they have valuable property at stake
• Ex- Hurricane Katrina- wealthy people, higher monetary damage fewer deaths. Cyclone Nargis - poor people, lower monetary damage, heavy death toll
• Education is an important factor in hazard impacts
• Education teaches how to avoid or reduce impacts due to disasters
• Literate people can pass written messages and spread word about hazards or specific disasters
• literate people can educate a population about hazards in order to reduce its vulnerability
• If the community contains professionals trained in hazards, they can help populations in hazard preparation and response
• Governance
• Formal and informal governments can develop policies that reduce vulnerability
• The governmentcan establish agencies like NDMA that should be made responsible for reducing vulnerability
• Support education and awareness efforts and reduce poverty by economic development

• Technology
• Technology can be used to improve forecasting of extreme events, withstand and recover from the impacts
• Technology is closely linked to wealth, education and governance
• Wealthier and educated societies have more advanced technologies
• Age
• Childern and elderly  have less physical strength and are susceptible to diseases
• Elderly have declining vision and hearing leading to vulnerability and children have less education
• Children and elderly have limited financial resources and are dependent on others for survival
• Gender
• Women are more vulnerable to natural hazards than men as they are poor, less educated and politically marginalized
• Women face additional burden as caretakers of the family
• In case of a disaster, women are made responsible to take care of children and the aged
• All the above mentioned factors makes women less mobile and are likely to experience dangerous situations

1. Disasters hamper development as all resources are diverted in responding to a disaster.
2. A disaster is a signal to the community to develop resilient systems to face disasters in future. In this sense, disasters are a precursor to scientific advancement  that leads to development