Sustainable Development Versus Economic Growth: A Case Study on Natural Disaster in Nicaragua

• Date: 01 June 2000
• Author: Heather Lane
• Published date: 01 June 2000
• DOI: 10.1177/107049650000900205
• Subject Matter: Articles

JOURNALOF ENVIRONMENT & DEVELOPMENTLane / DISASTER IN NICARAGUA

Sustainable Development Versus

Economic Growth: A Case Study

on Natural Disaster in Nicaragua

HEATHER LANE

Nicaragua suffers from a severe institutional and geographic vulnerability to

natural disasters, which has been further intensified in the past decade due to

the effects of global warming. In October 1998, Hurricane Mitch had a severe

impact on Nicaragua’s economic and environmental development. Although

Nicaragua has instituted many economic policies at the request of interna-

tional lending institutions, the positive implications of these programs were

reversed by the impact of the storm. A moresustainable development program

must include social and environmental factors as well as economic measuresto

reduce this risk and move the Nicaraguan economy forward. Integrated efforts

among the Nicaraguan government, international lending institutions, and

international and local nongovernment organizations areneeded to create sus-

tainable development policy that will reducevulnerability to future storms like

Hurricane Mitch.

In the 1990s, the amount of damage globally due to natural disasters

was more than U.S. $200 billion. This is four times the amount it was in

the 1980s due to the effects of El Niño and La Niña, which have caused an

increase in the temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and the oceans

(Brown, Renner,& Flavin, 1997, p. 70). As a response, policy makers have

been trying to implement sustainable development programs to prevent

further devastation to countries most prone to natural disaster.One such

country is Nicaragua, which has suffered throughout its history from

natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and volcanic erup-

tions. With the climatic phenomenon of El Niño, Nicaragua has suffered

from increased forest fires, droughts, and floods in the past decade

alone. The most severe of these natural disasters was Hurricane Mitch,

which struck Nicaragua in October 1998, causing severe rains, floods,

torrents of mud and trees,and landslides to tear through communities in

many parts of the country.1

The total damage caused by Hurricane Mitch totaled U.S. $1.5 billion

and was the equivalent of 61% of Nicaragua’s gross national product

175

Journal of Environment & Development, Vol. 9, No. 2, June 2000 175-182

© 2000 Sage Publications, Inc.

1. Just after this article was written, in December 1999, storms devastated Venezuela,

killing thousands of people in Caracas and in surrounding areas. The situation in Vene-

zuela is very similar to that in Nicaragua after Hurricane Mitch, demonstrating the

increased severity of these countries’ vulnerability to natural disasters without having a

true and workable sustainable development program in place.

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