Christian Aid urges flood action
The effect of climate change on worsening natural disasters has been highlighted by Christian Aid
Christian Aid is highlighting the effect of climate change in worsening the natural disasters being experienced in Texas and parts of Asia.
Madara Hettiarachchi, Christian Aid’s head of humanitarian programmes for Asia and the Middle East, said that scientists are increasingly confident of the links between such events and climate change. ‘Research by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology suggests that the most extreme rain events in most regions of the world will increase in intensity by three to fifteen per cent, and some places – such as parts of the Asian monsoon region – would experience greater increases.’
She added: ‘It is a reminder that we must respond to the immediate humanitarian needs in South Asia while at the same time decarbonising the global economy in order to reduce the likelihood of such events from happening again. Until we start to address the underlying causes of climate breakdown we will continue to see more human suffering on a massive scale.’
Christian Aid is bringing emergency relief to families in India, Nepal and Bangladesh as more than a thousand people have been killed and forty million more affected by floods.
‘We’ve all seen the terrible impact floodwater is having in Texas and that is in a country with “first-world” infrastructure,’ Madara Hettiarachchi said. ‘The people in South Asia are much less equipped to cope with such a deluge of floodwater.
The charity has deployed £45,000 of emergency funds and is also using a further £200,000 from Irish Aid and the DFID-backed START fund to provide 4,000 households with hygiene kits, tarpaulin, shelter materials an filters to provide safe drinking water.
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