MEDIA ALERT

ESCAP Calls International Experts for timely
Meeting on Water-related Disasters, Floods

Bangkok, 27-31 August

United Nations Information Services, Bangkok ---- Strategies to reduce the social and economic impact of water-related disasters are to be discussed at the Interregional Seminar on Water-Related Disaster Reduction and Response at ESCAP Headquarters in Bangkok from 27-31 August.

 “Floods and other water-related disasters continue to destabilize socio-economic conditions in the Asia and Pacific region. We witness this in the recent floods in Thailand and India, which resulted in the deaths of hundreds of people,” said Mr. Kim Hak-Su, ESCAP’s Executive Secretary.   Mr. Kim noted that the symposium was particularly timely, in light of the flood disaster in Petchabun province, Thailand, earlier this month.

The Symposium is being jointly organized by ESCAP, the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), the United States National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Secretariat for the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (ISDR).

ESCAP is emphasizing cooperation among countries in the region to learn from “best practices” in water-related disaster management. One focus of the United Nations Millennium Declaration is to “intensify cooperation to reduce the number and effects of natural and man-made disasters.”

Approximately 120 experts and decision makers from national and regional institutions in Asia and the Pacific, as well as representatives from other regions, international organizations, the private sector and civil society, including NGOs, will attend.
The Symposium will update the Guidelines for Reducing Flood Losses that were produced after the Symposium on Flood Forecasting for the Americas, held in Brazil in November 1999. This document will be broadened to articulate a global vision for future challenges and to provide concrete methodologies to reduce the impact of water-related disasters in line with the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction.

The Symposium will also provide recommendations that will feed into the global sustainable development agenda, including the International Conference on Freshwater: Key to Sustainable Development, Bonn, Germany, 3-7 December 2001, as well as the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, September 2002, and the national and regional processes leading up to the Summit.

NOTE TO EDITOR:  You or your representatives are cordially invited to attend this meeting which will be opened on 27th August 2001 at 09:00 hours at the United Nations Conference Centre, Rajadamnern Nok Avenue, Bangkok.

                                                                                   -- UNIS --