Brighter outlook

Munich Re, the reinsurance giant, has launched the world’s first microinsurance flood cover. It will offer low income households in the Indonesian capital Jakarta the opportunity to insure against the direct losses caused by severe flooding. In March this year a dam burst on the outskirts of the city, sending a wall of water into a densely-packed neighbourhood (pictured). Nearly 100 people died.

The German-based reinsurer, which is working with Indonesian insurer Asuransi Wahana Tata, and the German government’s international development agency, GTZ, says the year-long pilot initially will be a corporate social responsibility scheme. It could later be extended nationally and overseas.

Ludger Arnoldussen, Munich Re’s board member for Asia, said: “It means that natural catastrophes will not automatically bring more poverty.”