A holistic approach to disaster management in Bangladesh

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Raihan M Chowdhury
In a chilling reminder, Ismat Ali, a 60-year old poor man recalls his nightmarish experience last year when river erosion and flood plagued his livelihood.
"I was, however, safe to a large extent from the disaster this time due to construction of flood shelter center cum cluster village in our char area," Ismat Ali told this correspondent during a visit at Porarchar under Sunderganj thana in Gaibandha district July-end this year.
Gaibandha is Bangladesh's one of the poorest districts as natural calamities like river erosion, flood, drought, cyclone and cold weather in tandem with a near-famine situation (monga) affect about half a million people almost every year.
Bangladesh experiences different types of natural calamities such as cyclone, storm-surge, tornado, river bank erosion, floods, drought, landslide, etc. These adverse natural disasters greatly hinder the development of the country because of the loss of lives, assets and infrastructure.
Ismat Ali along with his poor neighbours Shahar Ali, Jabed Ali, Yunus Ali, Nargis Akhter, Bilkis Begum, Farul Begum, Maleka and Monju Ara, heaved a sigh this time as a project on flood shelter and cluster village completed just ahead of the havoc of this year's flood.
"We constructed the flood shelter center cum cluster village in this area where 200 families got accommodation here," said Md Lutfor Rahman Mondol, Executive Director of AKOTA.
AKOTA is a leading NGO working for socio-economic development of the poor district since 1985.
Mondol said many inhabitants of the villages migrated to other districts after being affected in river erosion or floods during the last few years.
Asked about the suggestive measures to combat the menace of floods, the experts said all houses in the low-lying flood-prone areas of the districts may be re-structured and built on long and strong pillars so that the dwelling places remain above the flood waters.
Debapriya Bhattacharya, Mustafizur Rahman and Uttam Dev, Executive Director, Research Director and Senior Research Fellow respectively of the Centre for Policy Dialogue (CPD) in a study said the government has to make it clear that it welcomes participation of all NGOs, private sector and business, voluntary organisations, civil society organisations, professional bodies and associations, and citizens in the relief and rehabilitation activities. Such a mobilisation should, as far as possible, be coordinated by the local civil administration.
" The government will have to undertake an extraordinary effort to spearhead such a mobilisation. The local civil administration will have to play the leading role in involving all stakeholders to sustain the food supply and contribute to the relief operations. The armed forces and the BDR, who are already involved in food distribution, will supplement these efforts," the CPD study said.
The study said according to the Standing Orders on Disaster Management, the Disaster Management Committees at the national, district and thana level need to be activated immediately. The government needs to mobilise at all levels, the development NGOs, community based organisations (CBOs), private sector bodies and concerned individual citizens along with the development partners to participate in and provide support for relief activities. The local administration needs to gear up its role as the initiator and coordinator of the relief effort in their respective areas.
The experts' suggestion also include initiating the VGF and VGD activities programmed under the ADP in the flood affected areas and having a coordinated initiative, particularly involving the private sector banks, along with the specialised government banks, to enhance inflow of rural credit.
"Finally, there is a need for demonstrating more urgency in addressing the tasks at hand, with improvements in coordination among the relevant government agencies and between the government and non-government actors. This can serve to instil an overall sense of confidence among the citizens as well as to mobilise them to meet the challenge posed by the floods," the CPD study opined.
Experts at a workshop on September 24,2007 also stressed the need to strengthen coordination among the government and non-government organisations in order to tackle the challenges created due to the recent flood.
Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre (BDPC), Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) and Oxfam-GB organised the workshop on 'Flood recovery 2007: The way forward' in Dhaka.
The floods of 2007 have seriously affected the country. As of August 7, 246 upazilas of 39 districts have been affected by the flood. The flood has marooned a large number of people and their homesteads; significant damage has been done to roads and infrastructure and also seedbeds; various crops including paddy, jute, sugarcane and vegetables, livestock and fish production have suffered.
CDMP Chief Technical Adviser Ian Rector said significant breaching of flood embankments and silting of river systems contributed to the extent of flooding. Water Development Board should critically analyse the reasons why so many embankments developed breaches, he said.
Effective management of flood in Bangladesh requires not only national, but also regional solutions, he said and called for more effective early warning system through which people at community level can get the message of flood and take safe shelter.
"We cannot prevent floods with our currently available resources, but we can cope with it and minimise the losses by adopting different measures. The initial results of a USAID funded pilot project on flood warning, now being implemented in two selected upazilas of Manikgonj and Tangail, indicate that timely warning followed by preparedness measures may play an effective role in reducing losses due to flood," said Syed Sadiqur Rahman, a former member of BCS (Information) Cadre.
The best way to survive and overcome the sufferings, being posed by the occurrence of flood almost every year, is to build a capacity to cope with flood and get well prepared much before the advent of flood. The equation is very simple, the greater is our coping capacity and preparedness, the lower is the risk and scale of damages.
Fortunately a beginning has been made in this field by undertaking a USAID funded pilot project titled 'Community-based Flood Information System (CFIS)' now being implemented in two small areas comprising about 650 selected households under the Dawlatpur and Nagarpur upazila of the districts of Manikgonj and Tangail respectively.
The five-year pilot project funded by the USAID through the River Technology Institute (RTI) of the United States was initiated in 2003 and the implementation work would be completed by the end of the current year. The rationale behind selecting the households from the above mentioned two upazilas of two districts is that these areas are inundated every year even during normal flooding... The project is being implemented jointly by the Bangladesh Disaster Preparedness Centre (BDPC) and the Centre for Environmental and Geographic Information Services (CEGIS). BDPC is specially responsible for disseminating the flood warning at family and community level based on the information provided by the CEGIS.
It may be noted here that the FFWC under the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) under the Water Resource Ministry was established immediately after the independence for dissemination of flood forecast and warning nationally and till now it is playing an important role in this field. The FFWC disseminates warning messages mainly through the electronic media which is still not within the reach of all the grassroots level people who are extremely poor.
The other problem inherent in this system is that it is not possible on the part of the FFWC to disseminate area specific flood warning. Moreover, it is difficult for the common rural people to properly understand and interpret the warning messages disseminated centrally. As a result most of the people of the highly flood prone areas cannot derive any benefit out of those warning messages. So, they are still compelled to develop their cultivation and harvesting plan on the basis of their indigenous knowledge and expertise.
The implementation strategy and modus operandi developed by BDPC seems to be effective and pragmatic. In the implementation process the participation of all the vulnerable people, local government bodies, local NGOs and national level expert organisations has been ensured. In designing the project due consideration was given to the issues like sustainability, affordability and participation of all the stakeholders. The most important thing is that BDPC has made the dissemination system most easy to make it understandable to all the grassroots people irrespective of their level of education.