Meeting challenges of storms, cyclones

As days of storms and cyclones are fast approaching, it is now time for the country to prepare itself for natural disasters that are beyond human control. This is because the Bay of Bengal is one the most cyclone-prone zones of the world. People still remember the 1970 and 1991 tropical cyclones in Bangladesh, the 1999 Orissa super cyclone in India and the 2008 Nargis cyclone in Myanmar for their devastations and casualties.
The success story of Bangladesh in handling cyclones is quite remarkable. The country was the first to envisage the Disaster Management Act among the South Asian countries in the mid-1990s but it took more than 20 years to get the law enacted. Many countries like India and Sri Lanka, which took Bangladesh as an example over the issue, endorsed such acts and issued standing orders quite earlier.
Bangladesh had to wait more than two decades to get the law approved. After the super cyclone in 1991 leaving significant death toll, the then government of Bangladesh realised that there was a fundamental need for a disaster management policy and institutional mechanism. But, unfortunately, the country could not make any mentionable progress in this regard in the following years even though the draft Standing Order on Disaster (SOD) was first issued in 1997. The draft SOD was approved in 2010, and until then it was the only government-approved policy document which in fact had no much legal value in absence of the Disaster Management Act (DMA). After the approval of the DMA on September 2012 in the parliament, however, there has been significant progress in terms of institutional reform. There is the National Disaster Management Council headed by the prime minister which has been formed with an aim to implement the overall objectives of the DMA and to provide necessary guidance for the concerned authorities formulating the disaster management policy and planning. In order to reform the institutional arrangement of disaster management, the government has reorganised the ministry of disaster management and relief.
As the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) was strengthened as part of the national policy, the devastation and casualties of the severe cyclone - SIDR - in 2007 could be reduced significantly. Such reduction was attributed to capacity building of the BMD in providing accurate and timely forecast. As part of beefing up the preparedness plan, a number of development programmes were taken during the last couple of years to establish an institutional arrangement from the national to local levels, for effective and systematic disaster management.
Bangladesh in fact is one of the countries where meteorological advances have already made its mark. The country is already associated with international initiatives for the development of Tsunami Early Warning System. At the same time, the government has undertaken a number of development projects so as to upgrade the capacity of the Meteorological Department for its better performance through sharing of data, information, forecasts and early warning of disasters.
To keep up with the objectives of such international collaborations, the government has taken initiatives for more effective future plans at national level. Although it is not possible to prevent natural disasters, their mitigation and adaptation are possible through accurate and timely forecasts and warnings along with adequate preparedness.
Under the financial and technical assistance of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), three sophisticated Doppler radars have been installed at Cox's Bazar, Khepupara and Moulvibazar. Moreover, the conventional radars of Dhaka and Rangpur are being replaced by other two sophisticated Doppler radars.
With the financial assistance of the government, three new seismic observatories have been established at Dhaka, Rangpur and Sylhet while the existing one at Chittagong has been modernised.
Similarly, a project has been taken up to reduce accidents of river-going vessels through issuance of advance forecast of impending hazardous weather. Also, to run the latest numerical model, high performance computer will be installed and automatic weather stations will be established through a project. The project will be completed soon and through this, it will be possible to issue more lead time-based area specific weather forecast.
To strengthen the agro-meteorological services of the BMD, seven agro-met observatories have been established at different places of the country. Also, five more automatic weather stations are under implementation. After the implementation of these projects, it will be possible to collect digital meteorological data from automatic weather stations, which will be disseminated to the central server at real time using reliable telemetry.
Moreover, it will be possible to cope with the adverse effects of climate change and to ensure sustainable food security by enhancing professional skill of Agro-met Division. In the perspective of the present digital Bangladesh, weather forecasts and warnings should be made available through mobile network, besides mass media. By taking up all these programmes it will be possible to reduce losses of lives and property tremendously.
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