The Director-General of National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Maihaja, spoke in Abuja during the celebration of International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction with the theme: ‘Build To Last’, said about $665 billion has been lost in the last three years to disasters across the world.
According to statistics, large percentage of the loss was recorded by high-income countries.
Maihaja, who was represented by the agency’s Director of Finance and Account, Mr. Sunday Hamman, explained that the most effective way to reduce risks was by incorporating disaster risk reduction into investment decisions.
He said: “According to the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, there are about $665 billion direct economic losses in the past three years. A considerable proportion of those losses comes from infrastructure failures in high-income countries.
“The theme has captured the essence why we must work towards integrating disaster risk reduction into investment decisions which is the most cost-effective way to reduce risk.”
On the essence of reducing risk, Maihaja said: “Weak implementation and enforcement mechanisms are common problems in countries where most urban development is informal. As such, when critical infrastructure fails, businesses experience indirect losses, as production, distribution and supply chains are interrupted.
“The recurring disasters and their impacts on our people and environment must serve as a wakeup call to all stakeholders, government at all levels as well as individuals; the organised private sector (OPS) must rise up to their responsibilities on disaster risk reduction.
“Disaster risk reduction is everybody’s business. Therefore, the need to re-strategise and foster stronger collaboration on principled and effective disaster management remains paramount. Despite the competing demands for resources, we must work together to improve the lives of the vulnerable citizens as well as enhance their resilience.”
