Natural disasters have doubled in two decades

The United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) is making an alarming assessment. The number of natural disasters has doubled over the last two decades (2000-2019). Hence, 7 348 events with an estimated cost of 3 000 billion USD have been reported.

The number of climatic disasters, which amounted to 3 656 during the 1980-1999 decade, has increased by 83% to reach 6 681 over the 2000-2019 period. Floods and storms are the most frequent climatic events.

According to the same source, natural disasters have claimed the lives of 1.23 million people in twenty years, an increase of 3.4% in comparison with the 1980-1999 period. Even worse, the population affected by disasters is up by 23.1% going from from 3.25 billion to 4 billion people.