UN: Heavy rains threaten flood-ravaged Fiji, emergency declared

Feb 4, 2012, 14:32 GMT

New York - The United Nations called Friday for preventive measures to assist Fiji, where heavy rains are hitting the already flood-ravaged archipelago, which has declared a national state of emergency for the next 15 days.

The UN's disaster reduction agency said flooding in recent weeks has killed eight people, and there have been 52 cases of water-borne diseases like diarrhoea and typhoid.

It said flooding forced the evacuation of about 1,300 people and caused property damage estimated 30 million dollars. The government has ordered the evacuation of inhabitants in low-lying regions.

'These types of events are likely to continue to occur,' said Angelika Planitz, a Pacific coordinator for the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR).

She called for improved preparedness and early warning, two important elements of disaster risk reduction, as the UN is assisting countries subject to the effects of climate change, in particular islands in the Pacific Ocean threatened by the rise of sea levels.

'Scientists are exploring the evidence that climate change and developments in low-lying, flood-prone areas such as Nadi and Ba are contributing factors,' Planitz said.

At a meeting at UN headquarters in New York, Palau President Johnson Toribiong said envoys from island nations are jointly sponsoring a call for the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague to give an advisory opinion about what those nations should do to counter inclement weather.

'We need guidance from the ICJ to tell us what to do and to interpret international treaty obligations (on climate change),' Toribiong said, noting that rising sea levels are an existential threat for small islands.

He was attending a UN debate preparing for the summer's international conference in Rio de Janeiro on sustainable development.