EDITORIAL - High-risk country

All countries are vulnerable to natural disasters. Japan is still in the process of recovering from the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami. The US East Coast was recently devastated by a powerful hurricane.

Yet those countries are not on the list of those most vulnerable to the destruction caused by natural disasters. Iceland, which has experienced two of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in recent years, is in fact listed in the World Risk Index as one of the five countries with the lowest vulnerability to disasters.

The index, which covers 173 countries, was developed by the United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security in Germany. The index ranked the Philippines as the third country with the highest vulnerability to disasters, next only to Vanuatu and Tonga. The Philippines was ranked worse than the Solomon Islands, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Costa Rica, Cambodia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, Brunei and Afghanistan.

The countries with the lowest risk on the index were Qatar, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Iceland and Bahrain. This is not just because those countries are not prone to typhoons, earthquakes and tsunamis. The ranking was based on several factors, among them exposure to disasters, where the Philippines garnered a score of 45.09 percent; vulnerability, where it got 53.93 percent; and susceptibility, 34.99 percent. But the country received its lowest score in its coping capacity, where its lack was rated at 82.78 percent.

In the lack of adaptive capacity, the country also garnered a score of 44.01 percent.

Despite scientific advances, nature remains unpredictable. The best that people can do is improve disaster risk preparedness and mitigation. As the World Risk Index showed, the Philippines has a lot of work to do in these areas. The country does not have sufficient capability even to track the amount of rainfall that can be triggered by monsoons or brought by typhoons, lowering the capacity to prepare the public for flooding.

Responses by politicians can be knee-jerk and need fine-tuning. An example is the proposed total ban on plastic bags, ostensibly to curb littering and minimize flooding. The most common and economical replacements for plastic bags at this time are paper bags, which are sourced from trees.

Sustainable forestry, better solid waste management, clearing flood-plains and better zoning, improved disaster warning systems, and increased capability for relief efforts are among some of the measures that can be adopted, until the science of disaster prediction improves.