Europe: UN warns of significant hike in natural disasters

At a forum in Skopje, the capital of the former Yugoslavian Republic of Macedonia, Margareta Wahlström, the chief of the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR) said that there is evidence that European governments are slowly implementing adequate disaster risk reduction measures, so they will have a much greater chance of succeeding at minimising the costs of natural hazards, reports the International Water Association. "Countries who have or are going to establish national platforms (NPs) for disaster reduction are reporting significant and ongoing success in addressing cross cutting risk reduction issues – more than double compared to those countries without NPs," she said.