Wahen Market Fire:  Somaliland’s Disaster Preparedness

Urban cities have increasingly gained popularity as settlement areas over the years; currently,  56% of the world’s population — 4.4 billion people already live in urban areas, and that number is expected to double by the year 2050. This means that in the next three decades, nearly 7 out of 10 people will live in cities. It is there foe unsurprising that more than 80% of the world’s GDP is produced in cities, making them crucial to national economies. Owing to the high rates of urbanisation, cities play an increasingly important role in climate change, because their exposure to climate and disaster risk increases as they grow. In particular, cities in developing countries face a greater challenge in such disaster risks because of their inferior infrastructural designs and poor governance systems and structures.