Yangon 'vulnerable to climate change'
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The former capital city of Yangon is placed at the fourth most likely to be exposure to the negative impacts of global climate change, British-backed Maplecroft revealed in its Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CCVI) 2013.
Maplecroft has stated seven cities as being at extreme risk out of fifty, based on the cities’ existing and potential importance in the global business environment. Bangladesh’s Dhaka is at the top followed by Manila, Bangkok, Yangon, Jakarta, Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City and India’s Kolkata.
The index was calculated based on catastrophes, people's vulnerability, development, natural resources, dependence on agriculture, research and development programmes, government administration of the public and the educational condition of the country.
Those cities are more likely to face natural disasters in future, like cyclones and flooding, according to Maplecroft. Temperature changes and rainfall affect people’s hygiene, infrastructure and the ecosystem in the long term.
Yangon has been facing warming weather and drought ever since Cyclone Nargis struck in 2008. Carbon dioxide emissions and booming industrial zones make the city suffer from abnormal weather changes, especially since the summer of 2006.
Other towns are also suffering from dryness and aridity.
