Continual effort needed to reduce losses caused by natural disasters

KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 11): Disaster prevention and recovery is a continuous project that needs to be reviewed from time to time to reduce the impact on the country should the worst occur, said a disaster prevention expert.

Most countries are aware of the potential disasters and take initiatives to construct disaster prevention infrastructure, and this effort should be continued even after the project is completed, said Japan's Kyoto University professor of disaster prevention research institute Dr Hirokazu Tatano.

Tatano was delivering the keynote speech at Awam International Conference on Civil Engineering (eco-AICCE’15) yesterday. The conference is held in conjunction with International Construction Week (ICW) 2015, which started on Sept 7 and will end today at Putra World Trade Centre. ICW is an annual event organised by the Construction Industry Development Board and supported by the Ministry of Works Malaysia.

“Climate change and extreme weather have caused unexpected disasters in many countries. Even for countries that are prepared for disasters, the preparation and prevention infrastructure may still not be enough to cope with the unpredictable situation,” said Tatano.

Tatano said that with limited resources, governments in most countries choose to allocate a bigger part of their budgets to infrastructure developments that could stimulate economic growth, and disaster prevention projects are often neglected.

“Weather and environment change every day, all the infrastructures need to be reviewed and upgraded from time to time to effectively reduce the losses if any disaster happens,” he explained.

He emphasised that the relevant government agencies should constantly conduct risk assessments to monitor environmental changes.

Tatano added that well maintained infrastructure could not only help reduce the social impact in the event of a disaster, but also enhance investors' confidence in the country.