Being the most populous and hazard-prone region of the world makes the Asian population vulnerable to disaster risks.

A plan adopted on the just concluded Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction revealed that enhancing early warning systems is essential for reducing human and socio-economic losses.

The plan, Beijing Action for Disaster Risk Reduction in Asia (BADRRA), said each disaster affects large number of people and constantly challenges existing emergency response capacities. It is critical for the effectiveness of disaster early warning as efforts should ensure that people at risk are able to receive, understand and act to protect themselves.

BADRRA said most Asian countries have neither developed contingency plans nor incentives to encourage their development and wider application.

To reduce the loss of human lives, national governments are encouraged to prepare, review and modify contingency plans regularly for efficient and effective disaster response at community and national levels, the plan said.

BADRRA also suggested cooperative contingency planning is particularly important in preparation for response to large-scale or trans-boundary disasters. And assessing and communicating disaster risks to decision-makers and the people at risk are the basis for disaster preparedness and risk reduction frameworks.

BADRRA also made some proposals in enhancing the resilience of critical facilities and infrastructure for disaster preparedness and reduction.

Composing the most disaster-prone region of the world and home to more than a third of the world's population, Asian countries suffer disasters every year. Frequent floods, typhoons and especially the Bam earthquake in Iran in 2003 and the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 underline the costs of the loss of lives, livelihoods and material damages.

Participants from 42 countries and regions participated in the Asian Conference on Disaster Reduction held in Beijing from 27 to 29. The meeting was organized to facilitate the implementation of the World Conference on Disaster Reduction (WCDR) outcome that is the Hyogo Framework for Action 2005-2015.

Source: Xinhua