Why Natural Disasters Inflict More Harm In Countries Like Haiti

Haiti is prone to natural disasters. Hurricane Matthew, a Category-3 hurricane led to the death of nearly 300 people recently. This is by no means a one-off case. A day after the hurricane struck Haiti, heavy rains mired parts of the country. Many houses were destroyed, and many were affected that live in temporary shelters. As many experts point out, this is not new. In 2010, a seven-magnitude earthquake struck Haiti. In 2011, floods had sown disaster. So, why are some countries more prone to natural disasters? People are more likely to die in a seven-magnitude earthquake in Haiti or India than in the United States. Why is this so?

A common belief is that we do not have much control over natural disaster. There is much that we can do to mitigate, and often, to prevent the harm inflicted by natural disasters. Developed countries do a much better job of equipping themselves to handle natural disasters, and this is why people are a lot less likely to die out of earthquakes or hurricanes in the United States.

The world has nearly eliminated famines, though not long ago, people believed that famines were the result of natural phenomena like droughts. Droughts do not lead to famines in developed countries because free trade and a developed market economy has delinked food supply from occasional disasters like droughts and poor rainfall. In developing countries that do not have globalised markets, however, droughts have a much greater effect. Even in India, prices fell in some drought years, despite the claim that droughts are a major reason why inflation in India was high in some years.

To begin with, transportation networks are not well-developed in developing countries. So, people tend to live close to each other. In India, for example, new migrants are more likely to live in dense settlements in newly constructed houses that are quite vulnerable to such disasters. Buildings in developing countries are also less likely to be earthquake resistant. Even though Japan is an earthquake prone country, in the recent past, the Japanese have done a really good job of handling disasters. This is not primarily because the Japanese directly tried to mitigate the harm inflicted by earthquake, but because Japan is a prosperous country. Prosperous countries tend to have better buildings that are not likely to crumble in the face of a natural disaster.

Developed countries are also likely to impose superior building codes. This is, however, not such a large factor as it is believed.  It is almost impossible to impose superior building codes in a developing country. When high standards of building are imposed on a poor society, people are more likely to flout it. This is because people find it too costly to adhere to those standards. So, when too many people flout the law, it becomes easier to flout the law without fearing the penalty.

Haiti, like other developing countries, has poorly constructed buildings, many slums and poor infrastructure. So, this makes it particularly vulnerable to natural disasters. As land use policy is not very good, people are more likely to live in areas which are more prone to natural disasters. In Chennai and Mumbai floods, for example, many deaths happened because people lived in areas that are not fit for inhabitation like drainage pipes. All these have more to do with poverty than with natural disasters.