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Cost of Australian natural disasters to treble by 2050: report

Xinhua, March 2, 2016 Adjust font size:

Australian natural disasters are expected to more than treble by 2050, and however, when social costs are fated in, the bill is expected to rise further, according to two reports released on Wednesday.

The reports suggested governments need to implement disaster reliance programs.

Natural disasters in Australia cost more than 9 billion Australian dollars (6.5 billion U.S dollars), or 0.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2015. However, that figure will rise to 33 billion Australian dollars (23.85 billion U.S. dollars) within 35 years when social costs are incorporated, the "Economic Cost of the Social Impact of Natural Disasters" report by Deloitte Access Economics, released Wednesday by the Australian Business Roundtable for Disaster Resilience and Safer Communities, showed.

"This report is the first time that analysis into the economic cost of the social impacts of natural disasters has been conducted, filling a critical gap in the research on the medium and long-term impact of disasters on our communities," Australian Red Cross director of Australian services Noel Clement said in a statement.

"Governments, business and communities need to work together to address the medium and long-term social impacts of natural disasters through further investment and research into community resilience programs."

The group is also urging more resilient physical infrastructure as 17 billion Australian dollars (12.29 billion U.S. dollars) will need to be spent on the direct replacement of essential infrastructure damaged by natural disasters by 2050, according Deloitte's second report, Building Resilient Infrastructure.

"The evidence is clear: if we ignore this side of the equation, the economic costs will only escalate," Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer said.

"Designing more resilient physical infrastructure is one thing: but equally important is how we address the less visible, more intangible social impacts both before and after the debris is cleared." Enditem