More capacities for tackling disasters

The Disaster Management Ministry notwithstanding, it is no overstatement to say that preparing for disasters of all sorts and coping with them call for a greater engagement by the government in all respects. The incidents of building collapse and fire incidents not in the distant past demonstrated a serious helplessness in clearing the collapsed structures or dousing out the fire. They showed those capacities are significantly lacking to face up to such situations. Although Bangladesh has earned a good name for dealing with disasters, internationally, the same are actually limited to battling such natural disasters as cyclones in the coastal areas. But it cannot be said that our abilities for dealing with the destructions of the type noted above in Dhaka city such as building collapse, fire incident, etc., have similarly improved. The fire department is spread thin all over the country. Fire fighters in adequate number are not available for the Dhaka region and their equipment is not also sufficient to take on successfully big fire incidents. In the event of an earthquake of the sort that have otherwise been predicted for Dhaka causing a series of building collapses, the capacity of the present fire department would be simply overwhelmed. Thus, there is a compelling need to add to the capacities of the fire fighting department. Its regular members need to be increased to maintain an appropriate number for discharging duties in Dhaka city and elsewhere. Volunteers in large numbers can also be raised and drilled well for duty under any disaster situations like earthquakes. Rescue equipment like heavy cranes and other gears have to be placed at the disposal of the fire service. The government should aim to get them in adequate number under a time-bound framework and also train personnel for operating them quickly and efficiently. It should beef up its abilities to draw from in the event of large scale disasters striking specially the urban areas. The preparedness should include both manpower and equipment. The urban areas like Dhaka are in need of special protection as they hold the major concentrations of wealth or assets in the country. Resources are scarce and, therefore, preparations need to be taken to reduce the impact of disasters and in cases of it happening, to keep losses as low as possible Shimul Biswas Rayerbazar, Dhaka.