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21 November 2000 Members of the Netherlands Red Cross took part on Saturday in building a huge dyke of sandbags around the conference centre in the Hague, venue for the 6th international climate conference from 13 to 25 November. The dyke was made from 5,000 sandbags. The conference, which is discussing international actions on responding to climate change, is attended by 168 environment ministers from all over the world. More than 100 volunteers and staff members of the Netherlands Red Cross joined other organisations and people in the dyke-building action, as a way of showing their concern about the influence of climate change on natural disasters. In its World Disasters Report 1999, the International Federation predicted that the explosive combination of human-driven climate change and rapidly changing socio-economic conditions will set off chain reactions of devastation leading to super-disasters. "Recent floods in the Mekong Delta, in India and Bangladesh have already proven this to be right," said Peter Walker, who initiated the World Disasters Report and who is now head of the Federation's regional delegation for Asia and the Pacific. "Unless governments understand that these sort of disasters are now normal, and thus build disaster mitigation and response into the national budget, we will see higher and higher death tolls, and people hit back year after year in annual flooding," Walker said in a presentation to Greenpeace International, also held in the Hague on Monday. In the World Disasters Report 1999, the International Federation warned about the impact of climate change on natural disasters. With rising temperatures and melting ice sheets expected to increase sea levels in the next 80 years, the number of people at risk of floods is expected to rise tenfold. In south-east Asia, recurring floods threaten to cripple the economies of those countries with low-lying coastal areas. In Asia, more than 54 million people were affected by floods over the past 12 months - the worst floods in the region for 40 years. Researchers anticipate that the next generation of Asians will see a rise of 20 cm in sea levels, and consequently a 10-25% increase in rainfall over the same period of time. "Floods like these, which used to occur once or twice a decade, are now likely to hit the region every year or every two years," Peter Walker said. In his presentation to Greenpeace, Walker emphasized the importance of disaster preparedness, as more people have to change the way they look at disasters and change their systems if they want to prevent loss of life and potential wasting of donor funds. People who live in high-risk areas have no choice but to cope with risk and reduce the impact of disasters. |
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Five thousands sandbags were used to build a wall four-feet high around
the conference centre. Red Cross disaster preparedness skills showed;
the team were one of the first groups to finish their part of the
dyke. 
