WHICH IS THE COUNTRY THAT IS BEST PREPARED TO ATTEND EMERGENCIES CAUSED BY NATURAL DISASTER?

 

A natural disaster is a major adverse event resulting from natural processes of the Earth; examples include floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other geologic processes. A natural disaster can cause loss of life or property damage, and typically leaves some economic damage in its wake, the severity of which depends on the affected population's resilience, or ability to recover.

Latin America and the Caribbean are increasingly exposed to natural disasters ranging from earthquakes to climate-related events such as hurricanes, storms and floods. Recent disasters are still fresh on people’s minds, such as the 2010 earthquakes in Haiti and Chile and, more recently, tropical storms Irene and Sandy.

Over the past decade, natural disasters alone have cost the region more than $8 billion in damages, taking lives, destroying property, wreaking havoc on public finances, and constraining economic growth. More than ever, countries, particularly developing ones, need to be prepared. But how can they do that if setting aside resources for disasters means ignoring some of their most urgent development priorities?

A financial toolkit developed by the IDB in 2007 is helping countries solve this conundrum. Under the Integrated Disaster Risk Management and Finance Approach, countries work with the IDB to better assess their risk, devise prevention and mitigation measures, and ensure they have enough financial resources to deal with emergencies.

An IDB study on disaster risk management showed that the country’s current tax revenue would be able to cover only about 25 percent of public emergency expenses related to a catastrophic natural disaster.

An important part of the toolkit is financial planning. Since natural disasters vary in terms of severity and frequency, the toolkit helps countries develop different instruments to deal with emergency costs. First, the program provides technical support to quantify countries’ exposure to natural disasters. Second, it helps countries create special budgetary reserves to cover such emergencies, including events that are less severe but more frequent, such as floods caused by storms.

But for me, The Dominican Republic is really prepared to affront a Natural Disaster because they use this resource very good.

The Dominican Republic has been the first country in the region to take full advantage of the toolkit, given its limited financial resources and high vulnerability to tropical storms and earthquakes.

So, it doesn’t matter if the country is not the better in the world everything is in have the necessary resources and try to affront the natural disaster with calm and patience.