Years under waters
"It is likely that 2013 will be remembered as the "year of the flood,"
sais GUY CARPENTER's "Global Catastrophe Review, 2013" report. For the
CEE region, though, also 2014 may compete for this unappealing title.
Exactly one year after the historical flooding in the Balkans which
cause losses of over EUR 17 billion in May-June 2013, Bosnia &
Herzegovina and Serbia were drowned by torrential rainfalls which washed
away lives, houses and crops causing losses of over EUR 4 billion.
In
this context, one could say that the high impacting weather events in
the Central and Eastern Europe are not longer isolated phenomenon, but
rather seem to set a new risk profile. A recent study published by
Nature Climate Change journal sais instances of very extreme floods,
occurring up to now about once every 50 years, could shorten to about
every 30 years, while cases of extreme damage now occurring once every
16 years could shorten to once every 10 years. As a result, the
European's current average losses of EUR 4.9 billion a year could reach
EUR 23.5 billion by 2050, a rise of almost 380%. Moreover, considering
the socio-economical development pace, the CEE region could account for a
larger share of these increased figures.
Still, despite the
obvious increased frequency and intensity of the extreme weather
phenomenon, nor the governments or the citizens in the region seem very
convinced that acting more vigorously for mitigating the effects of such
events is necessary. In most of the region's countries property
insurance penetration is rather small or even decreasing in the last
years.
The 2014 edition of The International CAtastrophic Risks
Forum will be focused on the flooding risk issues, trying to asses both
the potential effects and the possible solutions to stimulate the
property insurance penetration.
The event is co-produced by the
Romanian Ministry of Internal Affairs, UNSAR, the APPA foundation and
Media XPRIMM and will take place on October 8th, at the Palace of the
Parliament. Additional information and registration are available on the
event's website.
See you soon,
Daniela GHETU
Published on 27.11.2014
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