Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 - PoA-ISS

174
Natural and human-made disasters
Human-made
disasters typically
cause less direct loss
of life than natural
disasters
Box 7.3 Bhopal: A deadly human-made disaster
The accident at Union Carbide’s pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya
Pradesh (India), in 1984, exposed 500,000 people, the majority
living in low-income settlements close to the plant, to toxic gas. To
date, assessments of the death toll vary from 4000 to 20,000. The
majority of deaths have been in the years since the disaster, as its
chronic health effects unfold. Even by conservative estimates, it
remains the worst industrial disaster on record, and the victims are
still dying. The company paid US$470 million compensation to a
trust in 1989. The survivors say they received around US$500
each and claim the cleanup efforts were inadequate.
The disaster was initiated when a faulty valve let nearly
1 tonne of water being used to clean pipes pour into a tank
holding 40 tonnes of methyl isocyanate. The resulting runaway
reaction produced a deadly cloud of toxic gas.
The runaway reaction should have been contained but was
not, largely because Bhopal had far more limited emergency equipment
than was available, for example, in Carbide’s sister US plant.
Gasses can be contained by being burned off by flare towers or
filtered by a scrubber. At the time of the incident, the Bhopal plant
had only one flare, shut for repairs. Bhopal’s sole scrubber was
overwhelmed by the mass of liquids and gases that boiled up at a
rate over 100 times for which it was designed.
Bhopal’s liquid waste was also poured into open lagoons to
evaporate. Recent analyses of groundwater, soil and people near
the plant have found high levels of heavy metals, such as mercury
and toxic organo-chlorine chemicals.
Responsibility for the Bhopal incident is contested, with
Dow Chemical, which took over Union Carbide, insisting that
Carbide’s Indian subsidiary was wholly responsible for the design
and running of the plant. In 1999, Bhopal survivors launched a class
action in New York State, which led to the court forcing the
company to release internal documents, some of which
contradicted its claims.
In the wake of the disaster, almost two dozen voluntary
groups formed to cope with medical relief, supporting the families
of victims and organizing a political and legal response to the disaster.
This is, in part, a reflection on the lack of preparedness and
response capacity that served to heighten the vulnerability of
those living near the plant.
Sources: Jasanoff, 1994; New Scientist, 2002
…national economic
development …can
both reduce and
generate risk …
for society
■ Human-made disasters
Most human-made disasters and the highest numbers of
people killed are found in Asia and Africa. Data from the
Emergency Events Database, Centre for Research on the
Epidemiology of Disasters (EM-DAT, CRED) for 1997 to
2006 shows that 1493 human-made disasters were recorded
in Asia and 952 in Africa, compared with only 392 events in
the Americas, 284 in Europe and 11 in Oceania. The mean
number of deaths during this period per event is highest in
Oceania (46 deaths). Asia (34 deaths) and Africa (32 deaths)
also have high average deaths per event, and this is especially
significant given the high numbers of human-made disasters
in these two world regions. The Americas (28 deaths) and
Europe (24 deaths) recorded the lowest mean number of
deaths per event and also the lowest absolute mortality for
this time period. Europe is most affected by economic loss,
which at over US$10 billion is greater than the economic
loss suffered by any other world region. This demonstrates
well both the high level of capital investment in Europe and
the knock-on effect this has for loss profiled with low mortality
and high economic loss. A similar profile is found for
natural disasters where high-income countries and regions
shift loss from mortality to economic damage. Outside
Europe, economic loss is higher for Asia (US$883 million)
and Africa (US$830 million), with lower economic loss in
the Americas (US$83 million). No economic loss was
recorded for events in Oceania. 13
Human-made disasters typically cause less direct loss
of life than natural disasters. Worldwide, the mean number
of deaths per human-made event (2000 to 2005) is 30, while
for natural disasters (excluding drought and forest fire,
which are predominantly rural events) this is 225. 14 While
direct human loss is lower for human-made disasters,
impacts can be felt in the ecosystem and in human health
many years after an event, and this loss is seldom recorded in
official statistics. One of the most notorious examples of the
long-term health consequences of human-made disaster has
been the 1984 Bhopal disaster in Madhya Pradesh (India)
(see Box 7.3). Here, the accidental release of 40 tonnes of
methyl isocyanate from a factory owned by Union Carbide
India caused thousands of deaths and injuries. The effects
are still being recorded in babies whose parents were
exposed to the released gas, so that impacts have crossed
generations.
National development and disaster loss
The relationship between national economic development
and natural disaster risk and loss is complicated. It is,
however, clear that development can both reduce and generate
risk for society and determine who in society carries the
greatest burden of risk from natural and human-made
hazard.
According to an analysis of the influence of development
on natural disasters by the United Nations
Development Programme (UNDP), countries with a high
Human Development Index (HDI) experience low absolute
and proportional disaster mortality rates (see Figure 7.5).
Small island states such as Vanuatu and St Kitts and Nevis
show relatively low absolute mortality, but high mortality as a
proportion of population, reflecting the low total populations
of these small states. Countries that had experienced a
catastrophic disaster during the period for which data were
collected (1980 to 2000), such as Armenia and Honduras,
also show high losses as a proportion of population.