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Global trends in water-related disasters: an insight for policymakers is a unique report designed to support future national disaster policy programmes. Trends in natural disasters show they are continuously increasing in most regions of the world. Among all observed natural and anthropogenic adversities, water-related disasters are undoubtedly the most recurrent and pose major impediments to the achievement of human security and sustainable socio-economic development, as recently witnessed with the disasters caused by the Indian Ocean tsunami in 2004, Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Cyclone Sidr in 2007, Cyclone Nargis in 2008, and many others. During the period 2000 to 2006, a total of 2,163 water-related disasters were reported globally in the Emergency Disasters Database (EM-DAT), killing more than 290,000 people, affecting more than 1.5 billion, and inflicting more than US$422 billion of damage. This report is designed to help develop understanding of global requirements and challenges in fighting against water-related disasters, to evaluate the effectiveness of adopted policies in water-hazard mitigation, and to plan future development with better understanding of disaster vulnerability.
The report is divided into four parts. Section one is an introduction. The second section presents an overview of natural and water-related disasters from 1900 to 2006. The third section analyses recent trends in global and regional water-related disasters since 1980. The fourth, concluding section presents some recommendations based on the findings of the report.
The report analyses data compiled for the International Centre for Water Hazard and Risk Management (ICHARM) in the Public Works Research Institute (PWRI) Technical Notes Nos. 4088 and 3985. Data from the Emergency Events Database (EM‑DAT) of the Centre for Research on Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED), widely regarded as being the most reliable existing database, are used throughout unless stated otherwise.