Ranks disaster watchdog
A leading disaster watchdog has ranked Bangladesh as the world’s sixth “high disaster risk country” in terms of its exposure to typhoons, earthquake and tsunamis.
The German-based United Nations University (UNU) Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in its ‘World Risk Report-2011’ said Bangladesh ranked second in its risk index in Asia after the Philippines.
A key feature of the report, developed by UNU-EHS, calculates and compares risk values for 173 countries worldwide, while ranking regions and countries facing the high disaster risk.
It evaluates the interactions between exposure to natural hazards and climate change, and factors of social vulnerability, including levels of poverty, education, food security and governance.
The 15 high risk countries respectively are Vanuatu, Tonga, Philippines, Solomon Islands, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Timor-Leste, Costa Rica, Cambodia, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Madagascar, Brunei Darussalam and Afghanistan.
-With BSS/The Daily Star input
