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The composition of disaster waste varies both with the type of
disaster and the natural and built environment affected. The
largest proportion of disaster waste is generally construction and
demolition waste, comprised of concrete, steel, wood and other
building materials, which can also include asbestos insulation
and other hazardous waste. The 2008 earthquake near Chengdu
in Sichuan, China, for example generated about 20 million tons of
building waste (Boston.com, 2008).
Disaster waste is not only generated by the disaster itself but
also during the response and recovery phase (Modak, Wilson and
Velis, 2015h). Emergency and rebuilding operations generate
substantial amounts of waste because of the lack of segregation,
and uncontrolled storage and dumping. This waste might, for
example, consist of health care products, packaging from basic
provisions or demolition waste. Proper management of disaster
waste can provide resources to support the recovery effort rather
than causing long-term damage. For example, recycling rubble
and steel debris into new building materials can reduce the costs
of rebuilding affected communities.
Disaster risks in mountain cities
As a result of population growth, rural to urban migration and
an increasing shortage of space, cities in developing countries
are sprawling outwards, often into hazard-prone areas such as
alongside riverbanks or steep hillsides, which were previously
devoid of development (Schuster and Highland, 2007; Jeschonnek
et al., 2014). The growth of these cities often exceeds the capacity
of authorities to develop and maintain adequate infrastructure,
resulting in the development of informal settlements and slum
areas which are highly vulnerability to natural hazards (Jeschonnek
et al., 2014). Globally, about 56 per cent of all cities are exposed
to at least one type of natural hazard – cyclones, floods, droughts,
earthquakes, landslides or volcano eruptions (Gu et al., 2015).
In mountainous regions, people (particularly young men) from
small mountain communities, move to large cities in search of
better prospects. Due to limited financial resources, they often
move to the growing slum areas and informal settlements,
which lack even the most basic infrastructure. These tend
to be located on steep hillsides around mountain cities and
can be particularly vulnerable to landslides triggered by heavy
rain and the removal of vegetation. The risks in these areas are
often exacerbated by the poor quality of homes and infrastructure
which are vulnerable to collapse, and because these areas lack early
warning systems and evacuation plans (Jeschonnek et al., 2014).
Mitigating urban risk is an urgent priority for national
governments as well as urbanmunicipalities, given the continued
urbanization projected for the coming decades, particularly
in Asia and Africa. This includes obtaining good quality data
on shocks, stresses, hazards and vulnerabilities; implementing
more stringent construction standards and plans for safer
buildings and infrastructure; legalizing and regularizing informal
settlements; preserving productive and protective ecosystems
(for example through an ecosystem-based adaptation approach);
and building local capacity to respond rapidly to disasters.
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Damaged bridge from flooding, Pakistan.
Photo
©
Wikimedia/Horace Murray