Damage from natural disasters increase 10-fold in 30 years

The nation`s property damage from natural disasters such as typhoons, floods and heavy snowfall increased about 10-fold during the past 30 years.

Dr. Chung Yea-Mo of Samsung Global Environment Research Center said in his contribution to the quarterly ``Green Samsung`` that the nation`s annual damage from natural disaster soared from 116.4 billion won in the 1960s to as much as 1.12 trillion won in the 1990s.

Globally, accumulated damage during the 1950s stood at US$39.6 billion, but it jumped 15.4-fold to US$608.5 billion in the 1990s. Also, the number of massive disasters sharply increased from 20 in the 1950s to 87 in the 1990s.

Chung said that the figures are based on damage to buildings and agricultural products. So the actual damage would increase by more than five-fold, considering the additional import of agricultural products from the damage and inconveniences suffered by citizens.

The growing damage from natural disasters is attributed to reckless development and global warming from environmental pollution.

``The frequent occurrences of abnormal weather is largely attributed to global warming,`` Chung said. ``In particular, reckless development projects and torrential raining increased damage in Korea.``

Kim Joon-Seok kjs359@donga.com