Flooding in Bangkok , Thailand (Source: un.org)

(VOVworld) - The UN has called on Southeast Asian nations to invest more in disaster risk reduction to protect economic growth. At the Southeast Asia Flood Risk Reduction Forum in Bangkok on Monday, Under UN Secretary General Noeleen Heyzer stressed the need to accelerate the implementation of regional and national disaster risk reduction frameworks.
At the forum, Southeast Asian nations discussed lessons from last year’s natural disasters in the region to make them more resilient to future risks. The historic floods in the region last year affected at least 20 million people with more than 1,000 lives lost and damages estimated at billions of US dollars.