Satellites check cyclone toll in Vanuatu

REGIONAL satellite technology has been called in to aid cyclone-battered Pacific islands, especially Vanuatu, after the devastation wrought by Cyclone Pam.

THE United Nations has triggered a regional pact calling on satellite-owning states to provide data and high resolution images to assist the Vanuatu government in relief efforts.

The information is expected to play a vital role as relief organisations set about the job of recovery from the cyclone's 340km/h winds amid reports of dozens of deaths.Communications with the outside world have also been cut, adding to the importance the satellite data will play in relief efforts.The agreements come under the UN's Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) with satellite-owning countries including India, China, South Korea and Japan providing data to enable a full assessment of damage."The country can assess the extent of their losses very quickly and understand how to mount relief operations," Shamika Sirimanne, director of ESCAP's ICT and Disaster Risk Reduction division told AAP.Ms Sirimanne's comments come as the UN is hosting the Third World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction in Sendai, Japan.She said that immediately after a disaster there was a need to understand the damage and loss, leading to member states sharing satellite data and high resolution real time images."The work has just started last (Friday) night. My colleagues were working the whole night to get this satellite data from the space-faring countries," she said in a telephone interview from the conference venue.A UN report this week noted that economic losses over the past 45 years in the Asia Pacific from natural disasters have cost economies cumulative losses of $US1.15 trillion ($A1.49 trillion), with a loss of more than two million lives.The UN report found Vanuatu was the country most at risk in the world to natural disasters, ahead of Tonga, the Philippines, Japan and Costa Rica.The UN is pressing countries to view disaster management as part of long term development strategies rather than being left to emergency relief agencies.Ms Sirimanne, who is also an economist, called for a greater role of mainstream economic ministries to ensure protection of vital infrastructure, schools, hospitals and utilities such as power.

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