Reuters
February 28, 2002

In poor nations, many people are forced to live on unstable hillsides. ‘Late arrivals are always settling in the most dangerous land,’ says Janos Bogardi, director of the U.N. University Institute for Environment and Human Security.

(excerpt)

Oslo: Landslides kill 800-1,000 people a year and climate change may be adding to the risks from hillside slums in Latin America to Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, U.N. experts said on Tuesday.

Asia suffered most with 220 landslides in the past century out of about 500 that caused human deaths, they said. Many of the most deadly mudslides were in Latin America and the costliest in Europe.

About 800-1,000 people died in landslides in each of the past 20 years, the U.N. University said in a statement.

About 100 experts will meet in Tokyo on Jan. 18-20 to discuss ways to prevent and ease damage from landslides amid worries that global warming may make slides more frequent by bringing heavier downpours that loosen soils.

“If climate change predictions are accurate you will expect…more intense and extreme rainfalls,” said Srikantha Herath, senior academic officer of the U.N. University.

The report said some cultural sites were at risk from landslides, including the Valley of the Kings where Egypt’s Pharaohs are buried, the Inca mountain fortress of Machu Picchu in Peru or China’s Huaqing Palace dating from the Tang dynasty.

“Special attention should be given to cultural and natural heritage sites of universal and irreplaceable values,” said Kyoji Sassa, director of the Disaster Prevention Research Institute and a professor at Japan’s Kyoto University.

“In some places, particularly in developing countries, the natural threats are being exacerbated by rapid tourism development,” he said.