Floods top the natural disasters list

A joint report by SEEDS and Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED) claims that floods top the list of natural disasters since 2000, with 56% of smart cities falling in high flood risk districts.

In the SEEDS-CRED report titled 'Decoding the Monsoon Floods' - had analysed disaster data from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Myanmar between 2000 and 2017.

The report reveals that more than 2200 cities and towns in India are located in districts which have witnessed at least 11 floods in the last 18 years. One of the findings states that 56% of India's planned smart cities fall in districts reporting a high number of flood events, signifying the scale of investments that need to be secured against future risks, according to a press statement released on Friday.

Dr. Anshu Sharma, Co-founder and Mentor, SEEDS, said, "Since 2000, India has faced 215 flood events. This accounts for 77% of all disaster events. Assam is the most flood prone state, with areas like Lakhimpur reporting over 30 flood events within this period. Even known drought prone areas of Gujarat and Rajasthan have witnessed more floods than the country's average in the last 18 years. Unpredictability, urbanisation and invisibility of flood risk are major concerns that need to be addressed urgently."

Dr. Debarati Guha-Sapir, Director,CRED said, "We are witnessing a disturbing trend of a large number of climate induced disasters, led by flood events that are impacting communities globally."

The report states that when the scale is this huge, the nature of the losses is informal and resources at hand are limited, coping practices at the community level are beneficial.