World Water Day 2004: Water and Disasters...
Join the movement for action around the World Water Day, 22 March of each year

Weather, climate and water resources can have a devastating impact on socio-economic development and on the well-being of humankind. According to the World Meteorological Organization weather and climate-related extreme events, such as tornadoes, thunderstorms, storms, cyclones, floods and drought, account for nearly 75 per cent of all disasters. They lead to an enormous toll of human suffering, loss of life and economic damage. Monitoring these events, predicting their movements and issuing timely warnings are essential to mitigate the disastrous impact of such events on population and economy.

Natural and human-made disasters

Natural and human-made disasters (drought and war) have a devastating impact. Floods, hurricanes, droughts, civil conflicts or wars affect many people, their homes and their economic prospects. A local cholera outbreak can be a disaster for families living in a slum or a village.

Despite globalisation, we often do not hear about thousands of local disasters which devastate or destroy communities. Other local crises become internationally known because of one dramatic picture for the world's media.

Everybody remembers the dramatic pictures of the little girl in the mud during the Hurricane Mitch in Honduras, in October 1998. Or the image of the young mother who gave birth to a baby while trapped in a tree in Mozambique. Both mother and baby were saved by a helicopter during the floods that swept also through Botswana, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe in 2000.

Link with other disasters

The HIV/AIDS epidemic is another disaster but its impact on water, sanitation and related hygiene provision and organisations is not widely known. Staff infection rates can be as high as 30% in some high prevalence countries, according to Evelien Kamminga and Madeleen Wegelin-Schuringa in the Thematic Overview Paper HIV/AIDS and water, sanitation and hygiene, published by IRC.

HIV/AIDS damages the sustainability of water and sanitation systems in a number of ways. In particular HIV/AIDS:

• reduces the ability of water users to pay water fees;
• reduces the ability of water users to spend time and energy on management activities;
• erodes management capacities due to loss of knowledge and skills (social capital);
• damages the ability of households to participate in planning and decision-making, so risking the possibility that their specific needs may not be taken into account.

Turning the tide

What is the difference between a crisis and a disaster? In a crisis you need to take urgent action: after a disaster you are picking up the pieces. Often, being prepared stands between crisis and disaster.

Statistics including shocking death counts, costs and figures based on economic, social and property losses, are sobering enough to make us appreciate the extent of the impact of disasters. However, it seems that few of us take steps to act on this knowledge and adequately protect ourselves against the risk of disaster.

UN/ISDR launched the 2003 World Disaster Reduction Campaign in October 2003. Living with Risk - Turning the tide on disasters towards sustainable development, looking at how we can cope with water-related hazards.

The campaign aims at changing our perceptions and attitudes towards hydro meteorological disasters and at involving as many sectors as possible. Disaster reduction needs to be incorporated into the broader goals of sustainable development to build disaster-resilient communities.

“be informed and be prepared”
Water-related disasters have disrupted national economies, severely weaken poor and vulnerable and are now recognised as impediments for sustainable development and reduction of poverty. Losses caused by natural disasters are particularly depriving countries of resources, which could otherwise be used for economic and social development. The toll for these disasters is much severe and tragic in the least developed and developing countries and has set back their development goals by decades. Disaster risk reduction is consonant with poverty reduction.

Water-related hazards are a consequence of the interaction of extreme hydro-meteorological events and the vulnerable human economic activities in the influence area of such events. Sometimes the extreme hydro-meteorological events also combine with the geological conditions or events to pose complex natural hazard. These hazards are tropical cyclones (hurricanes, typhoons, etc.) and storm surges; floods; landslides and mudflows; avalanches; and droughts (due to the absence of water). The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated in a recent report that climate change and a warmer world mean we will be seeing more of them. Further, any form of pollution of water due to direct or indirect release of toxic material into watercourses due to technological disasters or otherwise, poses grave risk to the health and wellbeing. 

Agenda 21 highlighted the need to manage risks to provide security from flooding, for instance. The 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) also underlined a shift in flood management through the “improved use of climate and weather information and forecasts, early warning systems, land and natural resource management, agricultural practices and ecosystem conservation”. 

The United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution A/RES/47/193 of 22 December 1992 by which 22 March of each year was declared World Day for Water, to be observed starting in 1993, in conformity with the recommendations of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) contained in Chapter 18 (Fresh Water Resources) of Agenda 21. 

Each year, one or more agencies of the UN System take responsibility for leading the celebration of the World Water Day. This year, the World Meteorological Organization – Weather, Climate and Water (WMO) and the UN Interagency Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR) have accepted to play this role. WMO in consultation with other interested organizations has prepared an Information Kit. This Kit includes a booklet and a poster on Water and Disasters and fact sheets on Institutional Information on relevant UN agencies.

Most of the Water-related natural hazards exist in areas that also present opportunity for human activities and have large potential to turn into disasters if development activities are pursued without factoring them into account or without adopting prevention and mitigation measures. People have managed catastrophes by anticipating potential hazards based on their experience of them, and by investing in protective measures. 

Early warnings that reach those at risk fast, and that are effectively acted upon are essential elements of disaster reduction strategies and action plans at all levels. National Hydrological and Meteorological Services (NMHSs) all over the world play a crucial role in providing vital information on the vulnerability of the society to Water-related disasters and also provide early warming for impending disasters.

Definition of clear role for all the agencies involved in the management of Water-related disasters starting from the National Meteorological Services down to the Civil Defense and the community action groups responsible for local emergency response is essential for a coordinated and coherent disaster response. 

With climate change and increasing variability ensuring that water-related hazards will not abate any time soon, disaster risk reduction will be called on more and more to build up our capacity to cope. Reducing the risk of water-related hazards means, on the one hand, developing our capacity to monitor their magnitude, duration, timing and location, and on the other, assessing and reducing our vulnerability to them.

Disaster risk reduction involves creation of a safety culture that demands involvement of local communities so that information and experience is shared. It depends the level of awareness of risk, which largely depends on the quantity and quality of the available information, and on how individuals, communities, agencies and governments perceive risk. People are more vulnerable when they are not aware of hazards.

Disaster management is not merely a technical issue but the one that has social, cultural and environmental dimensions. The disaster management strategies have to be evolved based not only on the technical data but on a strong social and cultural knowledge base. People’s participation at all stages of the disaster management cycle, in ways that is easy to understand, will reduce their vulnerability and will enable them to participate effectively in any mitigation measures. 

World Water Day 2004 with theme on “Water and disasters” provides an opportunity as well as a challenge to all disaster managers. Purpose of this campaign is to promote decentralized disaster preparedness, regional knowledge sharing and raising public awareness about the issues related to Water-related disasters. It aims at inspiring worldwide political and community action for preventing and mitigating water-related disasters, and to enhance awareness in order to save lives and property, achieve the Millennium Development Goals of reducing poverty and building sustainable development. Let each one “be informed and be prepared” to mitigate the adverse impacts of natural disasters and in particular the Water-related disasters.

The UN system is promoting the celebration of this Day and the purpose of this site is to facilitate the development of the celebrations in each country.