This year is the last in IDNDR—the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction. In its closing months, devastating natural disasters occurred in Turkey, Greece, Taiwan and in the Central American region, including the Caribbean, as well as the technological disaster in Chernobyl and the accident in Japan. This, argues Ambassador Walter Balzan, Malta's Permanent Representative to the United Nations, cannot but instil a sense of priority in the international community to reflect further on the level of preparedness needed to meet and face similar catastrophes.

Our planet is experiencing natural disasters on an unprecedented scale. The consequential negative socioeconomic and environmental impacts slow down and at times hinder and stall the sustainable development of countries. The international community has a distinct moral obligation to assist those countries which are mostly affected by such disasters, through the enhancement of its mechanisms for capacity-building, including technology transfer for natural disaster prevention and humanitarian assistance, in cases when such cataclysmic phenomena occur. It is augured that the momentum generated by the 1999 World Disaster Reduction Campaign and the World Disaster Reduction Day, observed on 13 October, succeeds in creating the sense of urgency, which will stimulate enough political will to strengthen initiatives aimed at preventing and reducing occurrences of natural and technological disasters.

In the phrase of the Secretary-General these phenomena call upon the international community to shift from a culture of reaction to a culture of prevention, aimed at addressing both disaster reduction and disaster relief, since the two are complementary and in no way does one exclude the other. Indeed, this becomes even more evident when considering that, in spite of the IDNDR efforts and accomplishments during the last decade, the consequential human losses, as well as the social and financial costs of rehabilitation and reconstruction, continue to reach unacceptably high levels.

UN Photo/J. Frank

The United Nations has a special leadership role in this regard. Concerted action involving Governments and all sectors and actors of society, including international non-governmental organizations, needs to be strengthened, backed by the political will and financial resources of the international community, since often—indeed too often—such disasters occur in the least developed among the developing countries, which lack technological and financial resources.

Being a small island State, Malta is very much aware of the number of vulnerabilities to which it may be exposed and at times could translate into natural or technological disasters. An oil-spill accident in the centre of the Mediterranean could potentially be of catastrophic dimensions to the Maltese Islands; it would not only negatively affect Malta's tourism industry, which accounts for about 25 per cent of its gross domestic product and as such is one of the main pillars of its economy, but would also contaminate or bring to a standstill our reverse osmosis plants, which are a main source of our potable water. Climatic changes, including global warming, sea-level rise, desertification processes and the loss of topsoil through erosion processes, particularly due to an increase in the occurrence of flash floods, are also matters of concern for the Maltese Islands. These phenomena obviously affect the socioeconomic development, as well as the natural environment, of the Islands, with the relative consequent constraint for sustainable development.

The specificity of these constraints and the needs of small island developing States (SIDS) in relation to sustainable development were acknowledged in Agenda 21 and further articulated in the Barbados Programme of Action for the Sustainable Development of SIDS. In fact, in the Programme of Action, Governments recognized that SIDS are prone to extremely damaging natural disasters and are subject to the effects of climate variability, including storm surges, landslides, extended droughts and extensive floods. These disasters call for a continued and enhanced committed partnership between SIDS and the international community to effectively address, inter alia, the improvement of capabilities for natural and technological disaster reduction and early warning systems.

UN Photo/J.C. Constant

In this context, it is indeed timely that the IDNDR Programme Forum adopted the Geneva Mandate on disaster reduction to promote a safer world for future generations. It remains centrally important to build on progress achieved during the IDNDR so as to further promote the introduction of natural disasters reduction as an integral part of sustainable development policies by Governments. It is also opportune to recall and applaud the Economic and Social Council resolution, adopted by consensus on 30 July 1999, which called for the continuation of activities related to natural disaster reduction following the conclusion of the IDNDR in December.

Bearing in mind the increased emphasis being attributed to natural disaster prevention as an integral part of sustainable development strategies, the Council's decision regarding successor arrangements for the IDNDR, to maintain the existing inter-agency secretariat function for natural disaster reduction as a distinct focal point and coordinating body, assumes added importance since it secures that the successor arrangements will be comprehensive in nature and as such capable of covering all aspects related to natural disaster prevention and relief.