UNDRR News

More than 30 cities across seven provinces in Pakistan signed up to the UNISDR World Disaster Reduction Campaign Making Cities Resilient on Saturday though many of them are still under water or recovering from heavy floods.

UN Disaster Risk Reduction Chief, Margareta Wahlström, met today for the first time with Pakistan’s President, Asif Ali Zadari, to discuss how Pakistan responds to “the new normal” in dealing with floods which have inundated the country for two successive years.

UNISDR champion, Senator Loren Legarda of the Philippines, has called for an integrated flood warning and response system as 3.2 million people struggle with the impact of back-to-back typhoons which have triggered widespread floods across the country.

The Special Representative of the UN Secretary General for Disaster Risk Reduction, Margareta Wahlström, arrives on a three-day visit to Pakistan tomorrow (October 6) during which she will meet with President Asif Ali Zadari, Prime Minister Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani, the National Disaster Management Authority, Meteorological Department officials and aid donors, to discuss future risk reduction measures as the country tries to cope with floods which have displaced an estimated 5.4 million people.

Between observance of the 26th anniversary of the September 1985 earthquake in Mexico City and Mexico’s hosting of the global celebration yesterday of the 2011 World Habitat Day under the theme Cities and Climate Change, the municipal government of the capital city has passed a new law on structural safety that will further protect people living with earthquake risk.

The UN Disaster Risk Reduction Office, UNISDR, today announced that 841 cities and municipalities around the world, representing hundreds of millions of urban dwellers, are now active participants in the World Disaster Reduction Campaign “Making Cities Resilient” which was launched over a year ago.

UNISDR Chief Margareta Wahlström today expressed concern at the great number of people who have lost their lives or have been affected by severe floods currently ravaging many countries across Asia.

As the international community gears up for the Rio+20 Conference on Sustainable Development to be held in June next year, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon is calling for any future framework for sustainable development to include a “clear prescription for incorporation of disaster and climate risk management.”

Under the slogan ‘Step Up for Disaster Risk Reduction’, UNISDR and the coalition Children in a Changing Climate - PLAN International, Save the Children, UNICEF and World Vision - will focus on children and young people on the International Day for Disaster Reduction (IDDR) on 13 October.

The head of the United Nation’s disaster risk reduction office, UNISDR, Margareta Wahlström, today strongly backed the NGO initiative “Never Again: A Charter to End Extreme Hunger.”