Vietnam has the dubious honor of being in this year’s top 10 list of countries worst affected by extreme weather, according to a new report.
The 2010 Global Climate Risk Index shows 600,000 people died as a direct consequence of more than 11,000 extreme weather events from 1990 to 2008 worldwide.
The report from the climate and development organization Germanwatch was released on Tuesday at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, Denmark.
According to the index, Bangladesh is the country most severely affected by natural disasters claiming 8,241 lives and damaging property worth US$2.18 billion a year.
Myanmar, Honduras, Vietnam, Nicaragua, Haiti, India, Dominican Republic, Philippines and China are other countries in the top ten of the 2010 index, based on data made available by the world's largest reinsurer, Munich Re.
On the top 20 list of affected countries, only four are developed countries: Italy, Portugal, Spain and the United States.
It is estimated that natural disasters claim more than 450 lives and damage property worth $1.5 million a year in Vietnam.
Because of its long low-lying coastline and exposure to typhoons, storms, heavy and variable rainfall, Vietnam is regarded as one of the 11 most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change.
It is estimated that sea levels may rise by 33 centimeters by 2050 and up to 1 meter by 2100. A recent study estimated a 1 meter rise in the sea level would affect approximately 11 percent of the population, flood 7 percent of the nation's agriculture land and wipe 10 percent off gross domestic product (GDP).
Unexpected storms, floods and droughts have grown in strength in Vietnam and some low-lying coastal areas are on the verge of being submerged.
The sea is already encroaching on sections of the Mekong Delta, the country’s biggest rice cultivation area.
According to a study by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, the Mekong Delta will lose approximately 12.8 percent of its area if sea water rises by 65cm.
The delta, which is home to 22 percent of the country’s population, produces half the nation’s rice output of 49 million tons a year, 60 percent of seafood, and 80 percent of fruit crops.
The report also found that the average temperature has gone up by 0.5°C – 0.7°C in Vietnam in the past fifty years.
Temperatures measured in 2007 in Hanoi in the north, Danang in the central region and Ho Chi Minh City in the south showed that in the last 10 years alone, temperatures have risen by an average of 0.4 – 0.5°C.
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