| Oxfam: Flood Defenses in South Asia May Have Aggravated Floods | |
| New Delhi 18 August 2007 |
Listen to Pasricha report
International aid agency Oxfam says poorly built flood defenses in South Asia may have aggravated the intensity of the recent flooding in the region. It calls for a reassessment of flood policies in the region, where nearly 20 million people have been affected by flooding. Anjana Pasricha has a report from New Delhi.
In a recent report, aid agency Oxfam said that defenses such as river embankments built to prevent flooding in countries such as India, Nepal, and Bangladesh can make matters worse
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ActionAid India's emergency adviser, P.V. Unnikrishnan, says governments need to spend more to prepare for floods, which have become an annual occurrence.
"If you make an investment of $1 in disaster preparedness and disaster risk reduction, it is thousand times more cost effective than reactionary responses which happen after the disaster," he noted. "Invest in early warning systems and early response mechanisms and most importantly, develop plans by engaging the local communities."
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