Ottawa: A new study predicts that floods, droughts and storms could destroy highways, damage buildings and power grids, resulting Canada’s economy a loss of $139 billion by 2050.
The study, published Monday by GHD Group, an international engineering firm, represents that there had been hundreds of reports of large-scale destruction caused by a flood-like situation in British Columbia last year.
The report warns that flooding alone is expected to cost the Canadian economy over $40 billion in the years leading up to 2050 and there will be a lot of damage to the production and distribution system. This would result in a loss of $64 billion to the economy or a loss of 0.2 per cent to the manufacturing sector while storms are expected to cost over $34 billion and droughts an additional $14 billion.
“While droughts will directly disrupt industrial production, floods and storms will directly damage buildings and machinery,” the report said. This will stop the power supply and the factories will be closed.