A five-day World Conference on Disaster Reduction hosted by the United Nations (U.N.) opened on Tuesday 18th January in Kobe, Japan, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the earthquake that ravaged the city.

The meeting was in fact scheduled before Boxing Day’s devastating tsunami in the Indian Ocean and is now unfortunately shadowed by the shock of the loss of 220,000 innocent lives in the unexpected tragedy.

The conference was opened with a moment of silence for the deaths. The sorrow, however, has triggered a pressing concern over the prevention of natural disasters.

800 delegates from 150 countries, and 2,000 other experts, advocates and journalists, were drawn to the conference. Through dozens of sessions, they will discuss such subjects as health care in the aftermath of disaster; financial risks and disaster insurance; and mitigating the impact of quakes, floods and other events on the cultural heritage of societies. In addition, a plan to establish a tsunami early-warning system is expected to be laid down.

"We must draw and act on every lesson we can," U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan told participants through his videotaped message, "The world looks to this conference to help make communities and nations more resilient in the face of natural disasters."

U.N. Emergency Relief Chief Jan Egeland said at the start of the conference, "The best way we can honour the dead is to protect the living."

"We must meet today to take on this challenge with renewed urgency and vigour, knowing that we must translate words into deeds and good intentions into concrete actions."

Egeland has welcomed the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO)’s blueprint for a US $30-million tsunami early-warning system that would go into operation by mid-2006. It is expected that in 10 years, all vulnerable populations will be covered by advance systems.

However, Egeland acknowledged that "technology is not a cure-all", he called for better protection for poor and vulnerable communities.

He said education for children on the risks of disasters and safety drills are needed. Hospitals, clinics and schools also need be built to withstand natural disasters. For disaster-prone countries, they have to create "action plans" to deal with the threats.

The UK-based Christian relief and development agency Tearfund, has recently published a reported entitled, "One Disaster Too Many". The report accused international governments for overlooking the efforts on disaster prevention, otherwise the devastating effects on vulnerable communities could be minimised.

"This conference provides a golden opportunity to take decisions that could save millions of lives from environmental disasters in the future," said Marcus Oxley, Tearfund's disaster management director.

A U.N. report said that at least 2.5 billion people had been affected by natural disasters over the past 10 years - an increase of 60% over the previous decade. Tearfund also warned that massive disasters such as the recent tsunami in South Asia, the earthquake in Bam, Iran in December 2003, and the South Asian floods last year are on increase.

Tearfund's report pointed out that with disasters increasing in number, long-term development within poor countries is being seriously threatened. It hopes that governments can make concrete commitments at Kobe.

Sarah La Trobe, Tearfund policy officer and the report's author said, "In Britain, other European nations and the US, millions of pounds are invested into reducing the risks associated floods, droughts and earthquakes, yet we spend very little on helping poor communities do the same."

"The tsunami in Asia has shown that there is now an urgent moral and financial imperative for governments and financial institutions to adopt new thinking and action about aid budgets and programmes. Money and expertise must be urgently directed into reducing the risks of disasters in order to help the world's most vulnerable communities safeguard their lives and their way out of poverty."