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Displaying 15 of about 15 resultsNAIROBI/GENEVA, 13 February 2012 - In advance of critical rainfall forecasts for the Horn of Africa, the UN office for disaster risk reduction, UNISDR, today announced a partnership with the WMO-supported African Centre of Meteorological Applications for Development (ACMAD) to ensure rapid dissemination of weather updates to disaster managers.
Pedro Ba…
GENEVA, 18 December 2012 - The Italian Government is urgently seeking EUR 40 billion over the next 15 years for flood prevention following a week of heavy rains that began on 10 November in the north and then wreaked havoc in Umbria and Tuscany in central Italy.
Italy's Environment Minister, Corrado Clini, recently presented a proposal to the country's…
PARIS, 20 November 2012 - It's a scenario from hell which could rival the 2010 Haitian earthquake in terms of human losses.
Conservative estimates are that the next big earthquake could result in 100,000 dead, 200,000 injured and one to two million people displaced in the fabled Kathmandu Valley where memories live on of the 1934 earthquake which took…
GENEVA, 31 October 2012 - UNISDR Chief Margareta Wahlstrom spoke to the opening session of this week's extraordinary session of the World Meteorological Congress which is discussing the implementation plan and governance model for the Global Framework for Climate Services.
Ms. Wahlstrom congratulated the World Meteorological Organization on the initiat…
GENEVA, 19 March 2011 - 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.
During a visit to the…
Geneva, 19 January - “The animals are dead. The rivers, lagoons and dams are dry. They have to move to neigbouring countries like Tanzania in search of pastures and water. As they move, they suffer from hunger and they want lie down because they’re tired from having to walk long distances”.
These are the words of Jemimah Maitei Kerenge, Maasai filmmake…
Geneva, 5 January 2012 - UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, in a recent interview, highlighted the prevention of disasters and making the world safer among his “five generational priorities” for his second term which began on Sunday.
Mr. Ban also identified promoting sustainable development; helping countries and peoples in transition; and encouraging…
HO CHI MINH, 17 April 2012 - UNISDR Chief, Margareta Wahlström, today visited parts of Vietnam's Mekong Delta which were affected by storm surges last October and are most vulnerable to rising sea levels caused by climate change.
Margareta Wahlström, the UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, who is on the second day…
GENEVA, 22 March 2012 - The UN Secretary-General's Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, today urged people to think about how much water they will be responsible for using today on World Water Day.
Ms. Wahlström said: "We live in a world where clean, fresh drinking water is becoming increasingly scarce. It can take a…
GENEVA, 5 March 2012 - The UN Special Representative for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, and HE Yoichi Otabe, the Japanese Ambassador to the International Organizations in Geneva, announced today the start of consultations on a new international blueprint for reducing disaster losses in advance of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction…
GENEVA, 29 February 2012 - The March to May rainfall season in the Greater Horn of Africa is likely to result in "near normal to below normal rainfall" over much of the region, according to a statement today from the 30th Greater Horn of Africa Climate Outlook Forum (GHACOF30).
This rainfall outlook applies in particular to areas plagued by drought in…
GENEVA, 5 October 2012 - On 13 October, the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) will be an occasion to pay tribute to millions of girls and women around the world who are on the frontline making their communities and societies resilient to the impacts of disasters and the effects of climate change.
Driven by the theme Women and Girls: the […
MARSEILLE, 16 March 2012 - Prevention and response to water-related disasters and crises are high on agenda at this week's Sixth World Water Forum which has resulted in a Ministerial Declaration that "we intend to develop and strengthen national and trans-boundary disaster prevention and response strategies."
Given that over 106 million people were aff…
GENEVA, 14 August 2012 - Mexico is in the grips of one of the worst droughts in 70 years - a catastrophe which has devastated agricultural production for over one year now.
According to the National Water Commission the prolonged drought has affected 70 percent of the country and decimated agriculture in the states of Aguascalientes, Coahuila, Durango,…
RIO DE JANEIRO, 22 June 2012 - The largest UN summit ever organized closes today with an urgent worldwide call for accelerated implementation of the international blueprint for disaster risk reduction agreed by all UN member States seven years ago.
Against a backdrop of 1.3 million deaths, 4.4 billion people affected and $2 trillion in economic losses…