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East Asia & Pacific is facing some great development challenges today: urbanization, protection of the environment, the need to find renewable energy sources and many others. This site wants to create a conversation around those important issues. More »

earthquake

Four years on: What China got right when rebuilding after the Sichuan earthquake

Submitted by Vivian Argueta Bernal, co-authors: Paul Procee on Fri, 2012-05-11 16:11
The devastation from the Sichuan earthquake was immense; the recovery, impressive.

Four years ago on May 12, 2008, the world was stunned by the news of an 8-magnitude massive earthquake that struck Wenchuan of Sichuan Province and affected, in total, ten provinces in Southwestern China.  

Official estimates put the number of affected people at 46.25 million, with some 69,227 deceased, 17,923 missing and 15 million displaced from their homes.

During our visits to those areas back then, we witnessed how water, electricity and gas systems were largely paralyzed and telecommunications and transportation severely disrupted.  General infrastructure was also overwhelmingly damaged, with approximately 7,444 schools and 11,028 medical institutions and 34,125 kilometers of highways devastated, in a region that was already among the poorest and most vulnerable in China.

The overall direct economic loss was estimated to be RMB 845 billion (US$ 130 billion).

In face of these severe human, material, economic and environmental damages, the Chinese government immediately set in motion a comprehensive relief and reconstruction program.

What Coke teaches us about disasters (and development)

Submitted by Abhas Jha on Wed, 2011-01-26 14:24
Photo courtesy of chidanands through a Creative Commons license.

Coke sells 1.6 billion servings per day. You can find Coke in the remotest, poorest and most unlikely parts of the planet. I recently came across this fascinating video of a talk by Melinda Gates. She asks: For those of us working on development, what are the lessons to take away from Coke’s enormous reach (and success)? According to Ms. Gates, there are three:

1. Invest in real-time data that feeds back into the product. If you're running Namibia for Coca-Cola, and you have 107 constituencies, you know where every can versus bottle of Sprite, Fanta or Coke was sold, whether it was a corner store, a supermarket or a pushcart. So if sales start to drop, then the person can identify the problem and address the issue.

Indonesia: Hacking for Humanity

Submitted by Stuart Gill on Thu, 2010-12-16 16:22

It has been another inspiring and exciting weekend of 'hacking for humanity' at the 3rd bi-annual Random hacks of Kindness (RHoK). On 4-5 December, the Australia-Indonesia Facility for Disaster Reduction (AIFDR) alongside other partners including the Bank hosted the Jakarta-leg of Random Hacks of Kindness. This global event brought together disaster risk managers and over a thousand software engineers (the hackers) to 21 locations around the world for a 48-hour “hackathon”. During the event teams of hackers developed practical software solutions to reduce the impact of natural disasters and help save lives.

Time to wake up to disaster prevention, Asia

Submitted by Abhas Jha on Thu, 2010-10-28 17:41
A power substation in Yingxhou, Sichuan Province was almost totally destroyed in the magnitude 7.9 Sichuan-Wenchuan earthquake in 2008.

The statistics are startling. 75% of global flood mortality risk is concentrated in only three Asian countries: Bangladesh, China and India. 85 % of deaths from tropical cyclones are in just two Asian countries: Bangladesh and India. Indeed, Bangladesh alone accounts for over three-quarters of people dying from tropical cyclones. 85% of global earthquake risk is concentrated in only 12% of the earth’s surface—a large part of it in Asia. In 2009, six of the ten countries with the highest mortality rates and GDP losses from natural disasters were in Asia.  82% of all lives lost in disasters since 1997, are in Asian countries.

Earthquake in Vanuatu highlights importance of telecommunications reform

Submitted by Aleta Moriarty on Fri, 2010-08-27 16:30
Everyone was on their phone—ringing loved ones, ringing offices, ringing those that mattered—to get reassurance that people are okay, to check on damage, to ring for advice on the threat of a tsunami.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Port Vila, Vanuatu after the Pacific Islands Forum. I was in the main town moseying about taking photos.

There was a tremor. Then another. Then the ground started shaking violently. Cars were being shifted on the road. There was crashing sounds from inside the shops as all the stock was flung off the shelves. People were running out of buildings in every direction. I wasn’t sure where to go as there were buildings and cars everywhere and I did not want to wind-up under either. I looked a guy in the eye to try and capture some kind of reassurance but there was none to be had. Everyone was terrified. Several men at least twice my size came up to me telling me they were scared and they did not know what to do.

There was a mass exodus from the central business district as people climbed a hill near town, getting on higher ground in case of a tsunami. Local authorities issued an official tsunami warning and hundreds of people starting running up the hill. This was the biggest earthquake that Vanuatu had ever experienced—7.5 on the richter scale (some say 7.3). A few cars trying to get out of the city crashed into each other.

From Sumatra to Haiti, the importance of increasing government capacity in responding to disaster

Submitted by Cut Dian on Wed, 2010-01-20 16:43
In Indonesia, a national disaster management agency was set up in 2008 to serve as a guardian of disaster risk management. The agency's important role was clear in the aftermath of a West Sumatra earthquake in 2009.

The unprecedented earthquake in Haiti and the massive destruction it caused reminds me of the significant destruction that resulted after the Aceh tsunami five years ago. The Haiti earthquake hit the country’s capital, Port-au-Prince, which is the center of government and economic activities.

The combination of enormous damage on facilities and infrastructure, the collapse of the national government function, and the lack of preparedness and experience make it inevitable that the people of Haiti will rely on the international community for guidance and coordination. This situation is different from what happened in Aceh after the 2004 tsunami. At that time, although the devastation was also severe and affected a large part of Aceh, it did not affect the country’s capital city. The Government of Indonesia, which is located in Jakarta, remained fully functional and was able to coordinate the emergency response, disaster assessment, and reconstruction effort that followed. The government was also able to set up reconstruction agency in only a matter of months after the disaster.

Haiti earthquake: Out of great disasters comes great opportunity

Submitted by Abhas Jha on Mon, 2010-01-18 01:33
A collapsed building in Port-au-Prince. Photo by IFRC/Eric Quintero under a Creative Commons license.

The scale and magnitude of the earthquake in Haiti has shocked, saddened and horrified us all. But there is a silver lining to this great tragedy. Looking back in history, great natural disasters are often a catalyst for huge, positive change.

The great fire of London in 1666 led to a massive rebuilding effort, better building regulations and, in the end, a safer, cleaner city that maintained the medieval street plan that is still visible, to some extent, today. The Wall Street Journal has an interesting discussion of how the impact of the 1755 earthquake in Lisbon led to the creation of a new metropolis with earthquake-proof buildings, wide thoroughfares and a sewer system. The massive reconstruction financing required after the great fire of Copenhagen of 1795 led to the creation, in 1797, of Kreditkassen for Husejere i Kjøbenhavn (The Credit Association of Copenhagen homeowners), the precursor of modern mortgage markets.

Web videos for a cause: using films to raise awareness, donations

Submitted by James I Davison on Mon, 2009-07-06 17:14

A while back, I saw this blog post, written by a Global Voices blogger Juliana Rincón Parra, highlighting storytellers using online videos to raise awareness about hunger in the Philippines. Among other videos, the blogger pointed out one film in particular, called Chicken a la Carte, a touching video that has been viewed thousands of times after spreading virally on the web through social media sites and email.

This got me thinking, and wondering, about how else online videos are being used to raise awareness of issues and spread word about charities and organizations. It is clear that a short film or video, if done well, can be an incredibly effective at turning an issue we’ve heard of into something much more personal and emotional. And as the Chicken a la Carte film shows, sites like YouTube can facilitate a video’s rapid and widespread broadcasting to mindboggling degrees.

Zai jian – Goodbye – See you again: a look back on China's progress upon leaving the World Bank

Submitted by David Dollar on Thu, 2009-07-02 11:46

This is my last week in the World Bank, after working at the institution for 20 years, the last five as country director for China and Mongolia.

A few weeks ago I had the unique opportunity to camp out on top of the Great Wall, which was a fitting exclamation mark at the end of my five years as the World Bank's China Country Director. It was a cloudy, drizzly day as we started, but then cleared up and turned into a lovely evening. The large group of kids we had with us slept in one of the guard towers along the wall, but I and a few others opted to sleep under the stars. The next morning opened with some mist, but then turned into a spectacular blue day. Some long-term Beijing residents hiking with us noted that they couldn’t recall ever seeing the countryside so green.

Beijing’s dry climate sets a limit on how green and blue it’s ever going to get, but the improvement over five years is noticeable and is one of the two most striking achievements of China in this period. In many cities, air pollution has declined as a result of policies that include banning the use of coal in inner cities, strengthening public transportation, discouraging car use (gasoline now costs 50% more than in the U.S.), moving heavy industry out of inner cities, and more stringent enforcement of environmental regulations.

From Wenchuan to L'Aquila, key after the quake is the work of volunteers

Submitted by Mara Warwick on Sun, 2009-05-24 23:17
A fireman showing the Bank's Global Disaster Management team around Onna.

Two countries, two cultures, a world apart, but I have learnt this week that the human face of the Wenchuan and L’Aquila earthquake tragedies is not dissimilar.  I am in the beautiful historic town of L’Aquila, devastated by the earthquake which struck the Ambruzzo region of central Italy at 3:30am on April 6, 2009. 

Sharing global best practice is one of our most important jobs as Bank staff.  This past week a group of eleven staff from all over the Bank, including four from country offices (Haiti, Aceh, Islamabad and Beijing), who all share the task of helping Bank clients prepare for and respond to disasters came to Italy to learn about the L’Aquila earthquake response.  We are here as guests of the Civil Protection Agency of Italy – a most gracious host – to learn from their experiences in managing the L’Aquila earthquake.  The mission has been organized by the Bank’s recently formed Global Expert Team for Disaster Management, of which I am a member.