An international conference at Western on water-related disasters wrapped up Tuesday with a strong consensus that more needs to be done to mitigate the loss in property and life from such disasters around the world.

Hosted by Western’s Institute for Catastrophic Loss Reduction, the workshop at Spencer Conference Centre, attracted nearly 100 participants from Canada, Germany, Venezuela, Japan, Australia, Austria, Nigeria, France, Ghana and Jamaica, who shared knowledge and expertise about international, national and local initiatives aimed at minimizing loss from water-related disasters.

These included representatives from three major United Nations organizations, including UNESCO.

“The goal of the conference is to bring a strong message of consensus to a World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan in January 2005,” says Western Engineering professor Slobodan Simonovic, Chair of the ICLR.

“We have developed a strong consensus and message to the politicians that we need to do better and we can do better in managing water-related disasters,” says Western Adjunct Research Professor in Economics Paul Kovacs, ICLR Executive Director.

“Appropriate risk-mitigation investment and the redirection of resources into prevention offer significant benefits as well as reduction in loss of life and personal property."

During the last decade, more than 2,000 water-related disasters occurred globally with a cost of $50 billion to $60 billion a year and the loss of thousands of lives.

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