IRIN - Natural Disasters
IRIN - Natural Disasters
Updated everyday

  • Analysis: How to avoid a fourth year of serious flooding in Pakistan
    SUKKUR 21 May 2013 (IRIN) - Since 2010, monsoon rain in Pakistan has brought with it some of the biggest seasonal flooding in living memory. Two months from this year’s rains, weather forecasters are already predicting above normal rainfall and in some areas standing water has yet to drain away from last year’s monsoon.

  • The making of the Hyogo2 disaster prevention framework
    JOHANNESBURG 17 May 2013 (IRIN) - A month after the Indian Ocean tsunami struck in December 2004, affecting millions, 168 countries signed on to a 10-year plan to make the world safer from natural hazards. Yet the plan, the Hyogo Framework for Action (HFA) 2005-2015, focused primarily on “what to do to prevent disasters, but not enough on how to implement it,” says Neil McFarlane, chief coordinator and head of all regional programmes at the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR).

  • Evacuation volunteers fan out in Bangladesh
    DHAKA 16 May 2013 (IRIN) - Some 50,000 volunteers in coastal communities across southern Bangladesh are out and about warning people to move to higher ground ahead of Cyclone Mahasen. Hundreds of thousands of people have been evacuated so far.

  • Microcredit helps small businesses buck the system in Madagascar
    TOLIARA 16 May 2013 (IRIN) - Justine Sija, 60, begins her day at 4am, when she buys catch from local fishermen to hawk on the streets of St Augustin Village, in Madagascar’s southern Atsimo-Andrefana Region. The work is hard, but in the last year, access to microcredit has boosted both her business and her hope for the future.

  • Rohingya evacuation under way in Myanmar
    BANGKOK 14 May 2013 (IRIN) - The government of Myanmar has launched a large-scale effort to relocate to higher ground tens of thousands of Rohingya internally displaced persons (IDPs) ahead of Cyclone Mahasen, says the UN.

  • Analysis: Helping local aid workers build meaningful careers
    DAKAR 13 May 2013 (IRIN) - There has been much talk of decentralizing the northern-centric humanitarian aid sector to give more power to southern staff, but how much has changed over recent years?

  • Bangladesh, Myanmar brace for Cyclone Mahasen
    BANGKOK 13 May 2013 (IRIN) - Bangladesh and Myanmar are bracing for Cyclone Mahasen, a storm which could affect millions in the region, the UN has warned.

  • Analysis: Getting governments to cough up for DRR
    AQABA 09 May 2013 (IRIN) - Investing in preparation for potential disasters is a “no brainer”, Elizabeth Longworth, director of the UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR), told a recent disaster risk reduction (DRR) conference in Aqaba, Jordan.

  • Zimbabwe short on climate change funds
    HARARE 07 May 2013 (IRIN) - Inadequate funding and limited resources are frustrating Zimbabwe’s efforts to develop plans to deal with the impact of climate change, says a government progress report.

  • “Super-fly” threatens “Rambo” cassava, food security
    JOHANNESBURG 07 May 2013 (IRIN) - A tiny, rapidly breeding cyanide-munching insect, dubbed a “super-fly” by scientists, is threatening the food security of millions of Africans.