Last year saw a 70 per cent drop in fatalities caused by natural disasters compared with 2013, the government’s National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) said yesterday.

Keo Vy, spokesman for the NCDM, said 136 people were killed last year by natural disasters, which include lightning, flooding, storms and landslides. In 2013, there were 300 reported deaths.

While flooding damaged 397 schools, 154 pagodas and 32 hospitals, and completely destroyed 185 houses, Vy said it was a marked improvement on 2013.

According to Vy, the death toll and damage caused by flooding in 2014 fell more than two-thirds compared with 2013 when 168 people died compared with just 49 in 2014.

Deaths from lightning also dropped from 103 to 75, and there were just nine fatalities from stormy weather, compared with 35 in 2013.

But landslide deaths increased from zero in 2013 to three last year.

Vy put the improvements down to “good cooperation from all sectors involved in . . . informing people about natural disasters”, adding that people had been made better aware of ways to avoid incidents.