Natural disasters last year set a record for lives lost and infrastructure destroyed, the UN General Assembly acknowledged Wednesday during its first-ever debate on disaster risk reduction.

Flooded residents of Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa district try to reach higher ground. [UN-HABITAT]

With increasing risk from extreme weather events triggered by climate change, the 192-nation UN body urged investments now to reduce the toll of deaths and damage by building safer schools, hospitals and cities.

"Barely a day went by without lives devastated, homes demolished, people displaced, and carefully cultivated hopes destroyed. It was one of the deadliest years in more than a generation," said Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in opening the session.

Ban recalled the disasters of 2010 - earthquakes in Haiti, Chile and China, floods in Pakistan and Europe, wildfires in Russia and the United States, cyclones and tropical storms in Asia.

Earthquakes, heat waves, floods and snowstorms affected 208 million people around the world, killing nearly 300,000, and costing $110 billion in losses, only $37 billion of which were insured, according to global reinsurance company estimates.

"Children are among the most vulnerable," Ban declared. "Thousands died last year as earthquake, flood or hurricane reduced their schools to rubble. These deaths could have been prevented. Lives can be saved by advance planning - and by building schools, homes, hospitals, communities and cities to withstand hazards. Such measures to reduce risk will grow ever more important as our climate changes and extreme events become more frequent and intense."

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, left, and UN General Assembly President Joseph Deiss at the natural disaster risk reduction session, February 9, 2011 [UN]

While poorer countries often suffer the most and have the biggest recovery challenges, Ban said that recent severe floods in Australia and Brazil show that no country or city, rich or poor, is immune to disaster.

Ban cited Australia as an example of the importance of investing in disaster risk reduction. Last week, the state of Queensland escaped relatively unscathed from one of the largest cyclones to hit the country in living memory, partly due to luck since the densest population areas were spared, he said, but also thanks to the "key role" played by planning and preparedness.

Ban said the UN's global disaster risk reduction campaign has attracted nearly 600 towns and cities from all regions that have committed to a 10-point checklist for making them more resilient.

"But so much more needs to be done," he stressed. "It will require courage, vision and leadership, and will need everyone's participation and investment."

"We need to take lessons from cities and countries that have shown how to reduce risk," said Ban, "as well from those less fortunate, whose examples of calamity should give us all pause for thought."