PNG features high among disaster-prone countries

PAPUA New Guinea is ranked 10th in the world and sixth in the Asia-Pacific region of the most disaster-prone countries, says National Disaster Centre acting director Martin Mose.
Mose told a workshop on the Introduction to Disaster Risk Management and Initial Damage Assessment in Port Moresby last Friday that PNG was prone to natural hazards. They include floods, tsunami, earthquakes, cyclones, drought, frosts, climate variability, landslides and volcanic eruptions.
He said the country was also prone to man-made disasters such as plane crashes, sea mishaps, civil conflicts, tribal fights and ethnic clashes which caused the displacement and destruction of properties.
“There are also high risks of technological disasters relating to oil spills, industrial pollutions, unregulated land use and environmental degradation caused by some of the major development activities taking place. Population growth and movement, and changes in lifestyle and attitudes are also changing,” Mose said.
He said climate change was likely to exacerbate the risk of natural hazards by causing extreme weather events more frequently.
“More than 80 per cent of the country’s population were subjected to extremes of climate-related situations from the El Nino southern oscillation,” he said.
“Over one million people living in 2000 coastal villages were vulnerable to coastal erosion, king tides, cyclones, and storm surges.”
“The significant social and economic ramifications of these wide ranges of hazards were multiplied when overlaid with low human development indicators, growing levels of inequality, poor communication and infrastructure, high rate of rural and dispersed population and high level of occupational vulnerability in the country,” Mose said.