Officials in charge of dealing with disasters in Asia have hailed progress in efforts to better prepare the region. At a meeting in Thailand, they said climate change is worsening natural disasters, however, and that more cooperation and aid for developing countries is needed.
在亚洲地区负责处理灾难事务的官员在泰国的一次会议上，赞扬了本地区在努力准备应对灾难方面所取得的进展。但是他们说，气候变化加重了自然灾害的灾情，而且需要向发展中国家提供更多的协作和支援。
Officials from fifteen Asian countries gathered Wednesday in Bangkok for a two-day meeting of the Asian Disaster Preparedness Center. The non-profit ADPC aims to make the region safer by reducing the risk of disasters in the region through cooperation and education.
来自十五个亚洲国家的官员星期三聚集在曼谷亚洲备灾中心举行为期两天的会议。这个非营利机构旨在通过协作和教育减轻灾害的危险性，使得该地区更为安全。出席这次会议的代表们赞扬共同努力以预防并应对灾害。
Delegates attending the meeting applauded cooperative efforts to prevent and cope with disasters.
代表们也指出，亚太地区被认作是全球灾害易发地区，所以有进一步协作的必要性。
Risk management minimizes destruction
Nicholas Rosellini, deputy regional director for the United Nations Development Program for Asia and the Pacific, said decades of risk management and international cooperation in countries like Vietnam and Bangladesh had reduced the destruction there by natural disasters.
"Cyclone Sidr, which in 2007 affected nine million people in Bangladesh, resulted in 4,000 deaths. But, this is compared to the 140,000 that died in cyclone events in 1991 and more than a half million deaths in 1970," said Rosellini.
Delegates also noted the need for further cooperation in the Asia Pacific, considered the most disaster-prone region in the world.
Noeleen Heyzer, the executive secretary of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for the Asia Pacific, said Japan’s deadly earthquake and tsunami demonstrated no country has the capacity for disaster preparedness on their own.
诺埃琳-海泽是联合国经济和社会委员会中负责亚太事务的执行秘书。她说，日本致命的地震和海啸显示没有一个国家有单枪匹马应对灾难的能力。
Cooperation is key
"The damages and loss inflicted upon a wealthy and well-prepared country like Japan only focuses the need for constant planning and preparedness for disaster," Heyzer said. "With climate change, this threat of natural disaster will only worsen for Asia’s rapidly urbanizing areas and for the exposed island communities of the Pacific."
海泽说：“像日本那样富有而且准备充分的国家所面临的破坏和损失使得我们更为注重对灾难作持之以恒的计划和准备的必要性。在气候变化的情况下，自然灾害将使亚洲迅速城市化的地区，以及首当其冲的太平洋岛屿社区面临更为严重的自然灾害威胁。”
The Asia Pacific is seeing increasingly extreme weather events that some experts say could be due to climate change.
亚太地区正经受越来越极端化的气候状况，专家说，这可能是气候变化造成的。
The region is every year hit with deadly tropical storms, drought, floods and mudslides.
该地区每年都遭受致命的热带风暴、旱灾、洪灾和泥石流袭击。
Nadeem Ahmed, chairman of Pakistan’s national disaster management authority, said that during the last decade in Asia, the frequency and magnitude of disasters increased, and that climate change was making the situation worse.
纳丁姆.艾哈迈德是巴基斯坦国家灾难管理机构的主席。他说，亚洲在过去十年来灾难的频率和规模都有所增加，而气候变化更使有关情况恶化。
"This is further compounded due to the fact that we have a huge population growth in some of our countries, unplanned urbanization, deforestation, poor land use management plans, inadequate enforcement of the building codes, and investment in high risk areas," said Ahmed.
艾哈迈德说：“由于我们某些国家的人口巨幅增长、缺乏规范计划的区域城市化、滥伐树木、土地使用管理缺乏计划性、房屋建造没有充分执行有关规章、再加上投资于高风险地区，这一切都使得灾情更为严重。”
Prevention efforts save lives, money
Ahmed said more support was needed for poorer countries, but donor nations needed to concentrate on disaster prevention rather than relief, which he said was less expensive.
艾哈迈德说，需要对贫困国家提供更大的支持，但是捐赠国需要把精力集中于防灾上，而不是注重救灾，他说，这会使费用不那么昂贵。
For example, he said $40 million spent on flood protection in Pakistan could have reduced the $13 billion cost in losses and relief aid for recent floods by 90 percent.
他说，比方说，如果在巴基斯坦洪灾防护上花费四千万美元，就可以把为巴基斯坦最近洪灾的损失和救援所花费的一百三十亿美元的资金减少90%。
Furthermore, Ahmed said that whereas in the past they stopped at addressing chemical and biological disasters, the nuclear plant crisis in Japan was what he called an "eye opener" and that it was now time for the region to discuss better preparing for the possibility of nuclear disasters.
Norway’s State Secretary Ingrid Fiskaa said while the disaster in Japan focused a lot of attention on mega-disasters, they must not forget the increasing number of disasters that are low to medium intensity. |