Disproportionately high in Pacific communities

Tiy Chung






The path tropical cyclone Mick took through the middle of Viti Levu, Fiji’s most populous island, last month; the tsunami that devastated Samoa and Tonga last September; and the damaging floods in Fiji’s Western Division a year ago, are all stark reminders the Pacific is one of the world’s most natural disaster prone regions.
  While the loss of life, destruction of property and infrastructure, disrupted services, limited access to food and clean water, and threats to health following natural disasters are all tragically familiar to Pacific islanders, the crippling effects on national economies are less well-known.
  A series of reports released by the Pacific Islands Applied Geoscience Commission (SOPAC) in late 2009 show that the small size of Pacific islands economies mean the economic impacts of disasters are disproportionately high in Pacific communities.
  One-off events can be exceptionally harmful. The Government of Samoa has estimated that direct impacts of the 2009 tsunami were in the region of SAT$380 million or around five percent of GDP, while Cyclone Heta, which hit Niue in 2004, generated immediate losses five times the value of 2003’s GDP.
  Two SOPAC reports on the effects of the January 2009 floods in the towns of Nadi and Ba, in Fiji’s Western Division, highlight just how costly disasters can be.
  According to the reports, families and businesses in the most flooded parts of Nadi and Ba lost over F$330 million (or around seven percent of GDP in 2007).
  These losses dwarf the F$113 million in damage to infrastructure and agriculture estimated by the Fiji Government immediately following the floods.
  The total costs of the 2009 floods to the Fijian economy were therefore clearly great.
  SOPAC estimated the losses to the Nadi and Ba communities by surveying 1045 households and 321 businesses in the most inundated areas.
  According to SOPAC, the biggest single cost of the January floods to families came from structural damage whereas the greatest single loss to businesses came from the destruction of assets.
  Loss of business or loss of earnings were also substantial, accounting to around F$100 million—or a third of the total losses.
  On average, less than seven percent of families and only a quarter of businesses interviewed reported having any form of insurance.
  The lack of insurance opportunities impedes flood recovery since many businesses and families have no means to recover from the damage—and may never do so.
  “If you consider the scale of community costs for Nadi and Ba, and then think that losses were not estimated for those families and business that suffered in other flooded areas (like Labasa), you can imagine the total costs of the January floods to Fiji could be exceptional” said Paula Holland, SOPAC Manager, Natural Resources Governance.
  “Given the uncertainty about the impact that climate change might have on the scale of natural disasters, the potential exists that the value of these losses could increase over time.”
  According to Holland, it is the poorest that are most sensitive to and disproportionately affected by disasters. 
  “The poorer the people are, the more disasters affect them, and each subsequent disaster has the potential to make them poorer as they do not have the financial assets to prevent, mitigate, respond, recover, or rehabilitate quickly, putting added pressure on their poverty status,” she said.
  “Each event increases poverty and makes it harder for the poor to escape the poverty cycle.”
  The situation is compounded by the fact that many Pacific islands countries have a high reliance on the primary sector, making them very sensitive to natural disasters.
  SOPAC observes that the loss of earnings and increased poverty arising from natural disasters erode the tax revenue, leaving governments with less to invest in basic services.
  This might include investment in infrastructure needed to stimulate private sector led growth, medical services and education, and disaster risk reduction or disaster response.
  SOPAC believes an integrated approach to disaster risk management is required to reduce disaster impacts.
  “First, research clearly indicates that investing in social services such as universal education, access to water and sanitation is likely to improve social conditions, reducing the sensitivity of the poor and improving their capacity to respond to, cope with and adapt to disaster impacts more effectively,” says Mosese Sikivou, Manager of SOPAC’s Community Risk Programme.
  “Investing in social services can reduce the vulnerability of poor communities living in hazard prone areas which in turn reduces economic losses from disasters and improves overall economic development.”
  Second, SOPAC stresses the need to consider disaster risk reduction as it benefits the poor considerably. SOPAC estimates that for every dollar invested in disaster risk reduction, between two and four dollars are returned in terms of avoided or reduced disaster impacts.
  Third, improved awareness is critical. SOPAC observes that barely half the people interviewed in Nadi and Ba recognised that floods were a natural occurrence in the Nadi or Ba areas and, in any event, only half of those interviewed were even aware that they lived in a flood risk area.
  Overall, SOPAC considers that an integrated approach to water resources management is needed to decrease the risk and impacts of floods.
  By ensuring integration across different government sectors, like planning, infrastructure, agriculture, disaster preparedness, water resource assessment and protection, and water supply and linking local level government and communities, solutions can be found to address the multi facetted issues on flood management.
  This can help provide short-term solutions such as water quality protection for families during floods, which is critical to minimise health problems, as well as long-term improvements watershed management critical to minimise future flooding frequency and impacts in all river basins.
  By investing in risk reduction activities and by improving the situation of the most vulnerable, governments can limit the potential damage from disasters to their national economies.
 
  • The reports can be found at: http://www.sopac.org/SOPAC+Economics+Publications