Political commitment Political commitment is key to reducing disaster losses and addressing the underlying drivers of disaster risk, whether that means reducing greenhouse gas emissions, ensuring resilient infrastructure and strong building codes, protecting ecosystems or paying special attention to the needs of impoverished and vulnerable communities.

Hurricane Katia was a Category One hurricane by the time it made landfall last Friday in Veracruz. Two deaths were reported as a result of mudslides, and there was damage to thousands of acres of crops, bringing hardship to farming communities.

At the time of writing, Mexico is threatened from the Pacific by Hurricane Max, another Category One which could disrupt recovery efforts from last week's earthquake.

The work of reducing disaster risk is ceaseless and must extend beyond capital cities. Reducing mortality, the numbers of people affected by disasters and damage to critical infrastructure, as well as stemming the tide of economic losses, are all essential to the long-term goals of achieving resilient and sustainable development.

Mexico, which hosted this year’s Global Platform for Disaster Risk Reduction, is a staunch advocate for implementation of the Sendai Framework, the global plan to reduce disaster losses which is vital to the overall success of achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

This opinion piece has been republished with permission from the Thomson Reuters Foundation

Date:

14 Sep 2017

Sources:

United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNISDR)

Themes:

Governance

Hazards:

Earthquake

Countries:

Mexico