Working together to improve disaster management

On the last Thursday of every March, Bangladesh observes National Disaster Preparedness Day (NDPD). This year the day will be observed on  March 27. Different types of events are planned by the government, civil society forums, disaster practitioners and the community-based organisations for the day. This year the theme of the day is fixed on the uncertainty of disasters and the importance of preparedness.
Preparedness is a better option for disaster management. A paradigm shift could be seen in the country from conventional relief and rehabilitation to comprehensive disaster management, where preparedness is at the heart of the cycle.
Across the globe, the importance of disaster preparedness has been recognised. In 1988, upon implementing a flood mitigation and watershed management project in Kinshasa, the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRR), the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) calculated that each dollar invested in Kinshasa resulted in the savings of at least $45.58 during the following rainy season in 1999. There are other studies that suggested investing in risk reduction before the risk happens, as the World Bank estimates that every dollar spent on risk reduction saves $7.0 in relief and repairs.    
Bangladesh is a disaster-prone country; the geographical settings and various other anthropogenic features make it vulnerable to frequent and devastating natural disasters. Unplanned urbanisation, many rivers, 580 kilometres of exposed coastlines, increasing population and impacts of climate change, an increased number of disasters, small and large, etc. are stark realities of the country. Bangladesh frequently suffers from devastating floods, cyclones, storm surges, tornados, cold wave, riverbank erosion and drought. The country's precarious location in between two tectonic plates exposes it to devastating earthquakes in the near future, according to experts.
Bangladesh is rated as a nation most at risk from extreme weather and geophysical events, as per a study ranking 229 countries on their vulnerability to natural disasters (NDRI 2010-2011). Bangladesh tops the list of 162 countries based on human exposure to flood-related hazards. It is ranked sixth out of 89 countries based on human exposure in terms of cyclone-related hazards. In consideration of earthquakes, the country is ranked seventeenth out of 153 countries based on human exposure and forty-second out of 153 countries based on 'economic exposure'.
In different disasters over the past 30 years, a total of 323 million people have been affected, out of which 191,836 were life casualties. The total amount of resultant damage in terms of economy was 17.10 million USD (EM-DAT). Besides, a severe cyclone took a toll of 0.3 million human lives in Bangladesh, while the toll reached 0.14 million in 29 April, 1991. Other major calamities include the devastating `Sidr' that hit the coastal belt of the country affecting 32 coastal districts by taking lives and destroying livelihood immensely.
Although most of the earthquakes hit inconsequentially, Bangladesh is one of the countries vulnerable to earthquake due to its surroundings by the regions with high seismic risks. According to CDMP (Certified Data Management Professional) study, some 78,323 buildings will be destroyed if a 6.0 magnitude earthquake shakes Dhaka. In case of a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, some 72,316 buildings in the capital will be damaged totally and 53,166 others partially, while the figure will come to 238,164 across the country by an 8.5 magnitude tremor. Over the years, river erosion has been considered as one of the major disasters in Bangladesh, both natural and man-made, or those caused by the impact of climate change and human intervention as well. A research shows, (CEGIS, 2011) almost 0.1 million people become homeless every year due to river erosion.
Over the years, Bangladesh has confronted many challenges of natural disasters and tried to mitigate the risks of natural disasters. Lack of proper preparedness always challenges the population, especially women, children, the aged and persons with disabilities. The government of Bangladesh has taken up numerous proactive measures to address disaster risks comprehensively. It has the vision to reduce the vulnerability of the poor to the effects of natural, environmental and human-induced hazards to a manageable and acceptable level by bringing a paradigm shift in disaster management from conventional response and elevating relief practice to a more comprehensive risk reduction culture.
Bangladesh has successfully formulated and enacted a disaster management act, policies, plans, standing orders and appropriate institutional framework for implementation. This provides basic operational mechanism for all the relevant ministries and agencies, but the effective functioning of all the pledges has yet to be tested. There continues to be a lack of coordinated implementation, lack of sustainability, lack of access to modern technologies, access to information and, of course, a scarcity of resources. Lack of coordination among the relevant departments hampers fast response to emergency. There is a need to complement disaster management vision of Bangladesh by building organisational capacity, sustainability and allocating useful resources.
For managing cyclonic disasters, Bangladesh has significantly improved its preparedness. After the Mahasen cyclone, it has been commended by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA): "While tropical storm Mahasen reached the coastline of Bangladesh on Thursday weaker than anticipated, the preparedness work undertaken by the government and humanitarian partners saved countless lives.'' But still the country has a long way to go, particularly in the areas of improving coordination among the efforts of the government and the NGOs, zones plagued by unavailability of required numbers of shelters, lack of volunteers, awareness-raising materials, and poor level of modernisation of the Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP). Considering cyclonic storms, taking shelter at safe homes is the ultimate preparedness measure. In 13 coastal districts of the country, 3,770 shelters have been constructed over the years (DDM: April, 2013) for around 10 million people, while significant numbers of shelters are not in the right position due to misappropriation and lack of planning during the construction time. In the last four years, around 970 shelters have been built, although 5,000 shelters were supposed to be constructed.   
Mixing modern technology with indigenous knowledge and developing an appropriate flood signalling system is yet to be achieved. There is a serious gap in constructing flood shelters in the flood-prone areas, where mainstreaming disaster risk reduction plans into Annual Development Planning should be considered with high priority. Measures should be taken for raising houses in the low land areas, developing cluster villages for the low-income community and ensuring clean waters for all.      
Despite recent efforts, Bangladesh still has a huge amount of work to do in preparing for a big earthquake, particularly in the major cities of the country including Dhaka, Chittagong, Sylhet and Mymensingh. Along with rapid urbanisation - around 35,000 people move to the cities every week - Building Code need to be strengthened and enforced, putting in place  preparedness measures taken at the community and household level. Till date, nominal efforts have been taken to spread the preparedness knowledge among the communities. For earthquake awareness, community volunteers can play the role of change agents. In this regard, the government decided to build 62,000 community volunteers to carry out rescue operation immediately after disasters, but it could build only 8,000-9,000 volunteers in the last four years. For creating massive awareness of earthquakes, the government and non-government organisations can work together for building partnership, where the media can play an effective role. A regular-basis earthquake demonstration, mock drill at both community and school levels should be organised, so that people can learn how they will behave during and after a calamity. There should be a concrete plan for the slum-dwellers and their hazards.  
Finally, for making the country resilient to disasters and promoting preparedness at all levels, a gradual and self-supporting change is required, where sustainable engagement should be ensured by the stakeholders, particularly the disaster management committees at all levels. Considering all the hazards, an effective response plan is required, where local needs, contexts and aspirations are addressed. In the last decades, Bangladesh became a leader in developing institutional frameworks and capacity-building initiatives. However, similar efforts should be deployed for the implementation of the policy frameworks, promotion of the culture of safety and dissemination of the best practices, which ultimately will introduce the country to the world as truly disaster-resilient.
The writer is Programme Officer, Urban DRR, Oxfam. [email protected]