Disaster management

WE are alarmed by the latest reports about Bangladesh facing the grim prospects of tsunami hitting its coastal belt and a major earthquake striking the country. The media reported about such possibilities of the worst kind of natural calamities affecting Bangladesh, on the basis of observations made by some international scientists. God forbid, such disasters would be too grave and fatal for the deltaic land-mass of our country. We even shudder to think about the consequences of a major earthquake in our densely populated cities like Dhaka and Chittagong. There will be not only loss of enormous lives and property but also a hellish carnage in the event of such natural disasters hitting us. We take a serious note of what an Australian scientist predicted about our situation the other day.
We have otherwise proved ourselves to be capable of managing floods and cyclones that are almost recurring phenomena in this part of the world. Our disaster preparedness and management operations have not failed us much in times of flooding or cyclone. But earthquakes and tsunamis are different kinds of natural disasters. We need to improve vastly our warning system and strengthen the whole gamut of disaster management system to cope with such disasters in view of the latest warning about our vulnerability to such natural calamities. The authorities concerned should take the cue from such warning to do the needful so that we are not caught entirely off-guard if such predictions come true.

Abu Faiz Ahmed
Agrabad, Chittagong.