2016•04•25     London     The Guardian

Dr Matthias Garschagen, scientific director of the World Risk Report, said large-scale disasters such as the earthquakes in Nepal and Haiti often act as stark reminders of fundamental development problems.

“Nepal, in a very sad fashion, reminded us of the importance of infrastructure for humanitarian assistance,” he said. “Nepal is a country that is very challenged by its geography and has very limited road and rail networks; there wasn’t the helicopter infrastructure in place to distribute humanitarian assistance in a sufficient manner.”

He said the 2010 earthquake in Haiti – which is estimated to have killed between 90,000 and 316,000 people and displaced more than 1.5 million – served as a warning of the need for building codes, and for health and sanitation plans to deal with the aftermath of a disaster.

Read the full article online here.