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World Health Organisation: make hospitals immune to disasters

NEW DELHI: The World Health Organisation has urged member-states in Southeast Asia to ensure that all hospitals and other health facilities are disaster-resilient.

The appeal, which came on International Day for Disaster Reduction, said that when health facilities got damaged or failed to function after disasters, it added to the suffering and increased the risk of death or disability among the affected people.

In the long-run, disruption of essential health services affected a country’s development potential.

According to the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction, the cost difference between building a safe hospital and a vulnerable one is negligible.

“Keeping a health facility safe from disasters is one sure way of reducing risks and saving lives, and ensuring that hospitals are resistant to disasters is not difficult,” the statement said, adding the technology already existed.

“Incorporating disaster-protection elements into the design adds only 4 per cent to the cost of the building. Retrofitting costs vary but can sometimes be as low as 1 per cent for non-structural elements. The cost of re-building damaged hospitals and health facilities far exceeds the cost of investing in disaster-resilient ones.”

Southeast Asia has faced some of the world’s worst natural disasters including floods, cyclones, earthquakes, tsunamis, and other emergencies.

The death toll was over 5,00,000 during 1996-2005, which was 58 per cent of global deaths due to disasters.

In Gujarat, it cost more than $ 50 million to rebuild 1,885 health facilities that were destroyed or damaged by the 2001 earthquake. Indirect costs, such as decline in the health of the population due to inadequate health services, are incalculable.

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