Floods, Storms Displaced 40m Children In 6 Yrs: UNICEF

News Desk

United Nations: Floods and storms accounted for a staggering 40.9 million (or 95 percent) of the recorded child displacements between 2016 and 2021, revealed United Nations findings.

The 2022 unprecedented floods in Pakistan displaced around 3.6 million children, many of whom went months without access to proper shelter, safe drinking water and sanitation.

According to a new United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) analysis, weather-related disasters forcibly displaced a staggering 43.1 million children in 44 countries over six years– or approximately 20,000 child displacements a day.

Moreover, droughts triggered more than 1.3 million internal displacements of children, with Somalia again among the most affected.

‘Children Displaced in a Changing Climate’ is the first global analysis of the number of children driven from their homes between 2016 and 2021 due to floods, storms, droughts and wildfires and looks at projections for the next 30 years.UNICEF recorded the most weather-related child displacements in the East Asia and Pacific region due to the combination of hazards there, followed by South Asia.

With every additional 1C of warming, the global risks of displacement from flooding are projected to rise by as much as 50 per cent, said UN agency.

UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell stated that it is terrifying for any child when a ferocious wildfire, storm, or flood barrels into their community.

In absolute terms, China, the Philippines, and India dominate with 22.3 million child displacements—just over half the total number, which the report attributes to the country’s geographical exposure to extreme weather such as monsoon rains and cyclones and large child populations, as well as increased pre-emptive evacuations.

However, when considering the proportion of displaced children relative to the child population, small island states such as Dominica and Vanuatu were the most severely affected by storms.

Why do we need urgent child-focused #ClimateAction?

In the last six years, weather-related disasters have displaced 43.1 million children. That’s nearly 20,000 children every day.

This is what UNICEF is asking decision-makers to do to protect them. https://t.co/tZIwOtO4N9

— UNICEF (@UNICEF) October 6, 2023

A staggering 76 per cent of children were displaced on the small Caribbean island of Dominica, which was devastated by Hurricane Maria in 2017, a category 4 Atlantic storm that damaged 90 per cent of the island’s housing stock. Storms also led to more than a quarter of children being displaced in Cuba, Vanuatu, Saint Martin and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Somalia and South Sudan recorded the most child displacements due to floods, affecting 12 per cent and 11 per cent of the child population, respectively.

According to UNICEF, wildfires were responsible for 810,000 child displacements, with more than a third occurring in 2020 alone, mostly in Canada, Israel and the United States.

Catherine Russell called for urgent action to prepare communities, protect children at risk of displacement, and support those already uprooted.

We have the tools and knowledge to respond to this escalating challenge for children but we are acting far too slowly, she added.

As countries gear up for the COP28 climate conference in November, UNICEF is urging governments, development partners, and the private sector to take immediate action.

The UN also called on governments to prepare children and young people to live in a climate-changed world by improving resilience and ensuring their participation in finding inclusive solutions. Additional input from APP.