UNDRR News

Following a massive earthquake earlier today in the Indian Ocean and the threat of a tsunami, Indonesian President and UNISDR Global Disaster Risk Reduction Champion, Susilo Bambang Yudhyono, told the press, "Our early warning system is working well". There were no tsunamis in Banda Aceh or other places which were hard hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami.

Threatened by increasing and lethal seasonal floods, the 500-year old Malaysian port city of Melaka is making considerable efforts to reduce the disaster risks that it currently faces from such climate related catastrophic events.

A visit to a disaster-resilient habitat in Bangladesh has prompted UNISDR Chief Margareta Wahlström to acknowledge the south Asian country as leading developing nations in the global fight against climate change impacts.

The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today discussed with the Bangladesh Government the country's huge shortfall in cyclone shelters and the protection of the country's coastline from rising sea-levels at the start of a three day mission to Bangladesh where the cyclone season starts on April 1.

Kokusai Kogyo is one of several Japanese companies bound to the government by a bond called saigai kyotei, a service agreement activated by the occurrence of an emergency.

Mayors and other representatives from some of Asia's largest cities are gathering for three days in Manila to focus on urban resilience across the disaster-prone region.

The 2,000 year-old Rice Terraces of the Philippine Cordilleras are a UNESCO world heritage site often described as the 8th Wonder of the World. Their preservation is at the heart of an environmental campaign launched last weekend by UNISDR's Regional Disaster Risk Reduction Champion, Senator Loren Legarda.

Following a recent decision by its Cabinet to buy land in Fiji as 'climate change insurance' for its population, Kiribati President, Anote Tong has called on the international community to address the effects of climate change that could wipe out the entire Pacific archipelago.

One year ago, the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami took 13,007 lives in Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima -- the country's three most affected prefectures; 54 percent of those fatalities were women and girls.

The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today paid tribute to the resilience of the Japanese people as they prepare to mark the first anniversary of the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.