Reducing disaster risk at village level
School students participating in disaster risk reduction exercise in Patuakhali village.
Bangladesh's unique geo-climatic conditions make it traditionally vulnerable to natural disasters. Since 1970, at least 10 major natural disasters and countless local emergencies have struck the country. The 1970 cyclone cost 300,000 lives, the 1991 cyclone 139,000 lives, while the 1987 and 1988 country wide floods affected 80 million people altogether. In 1998, there was a prolonged and devastating flood which affected about 60 per cent of our country area and about 10 million people were affected. On November 15, 2008, Cyclone Sidr struck the southwestern coast of Bangladesh with winds up to 240 kilometer per hour. Four of Bangladesh's 30 districts were classified as “severely affected” and a further eight were classified as “moderately affected”. Of the 2.3 million affected households about one million were seriously affected. The number of deaths caused by Sidr is estimated around 3,500, with 1,001 still missing and over 55,000 sustaining physical injuries. Monsoon floods had previously caused extensive agricultural production losses and destruction of physical assets, amounting to about US 1.1 billion dollar. Bangladesh is the worst cyclone-affected part of the world. Cyclones, storms, floods, earthquakes and landslides strike different parts of the country every year with mind-numbing regularity. For the millions of poor and dispossessed living in these regions, every calamity spells death, destruction and deprivation. The disasters underscored the increasing need for a multi-disciplinary and multi-sectoral approach in the developmental plans and strategies towards risk reduction. Relief and voluntary organisations are beginning to realise that besides relief work it is also imperative to reduce the vulnerability of people by adequately preparing them to face these disasters. It may be mentioned that Dhaka Ahsania Mission (DAM) and Concern Universal, Bangladesh has initiated a Community-Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) intervention in some of the most vulnerable and disaster prone areas in the country. The initiative is supported by the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO) under the DIPECHO (Disaster Preparedness ECHO) Fifth South Asian Action Plan and Cordaid. Since June 16, 2009, the two organisations are working jointly with the local community in the coastal districts of Patuakhali and Barguna, a highly dynamic ecosystem facing storms, high tidal waves, floods and cyclones every year. They are helping the local community in 14 unions of Mirzaganj upazila in Patuakhali district and Patharghata upazila in Barguna district in building effective preparedness to face the consequences of recurrent disasters and minimise loss of lives and property. The programme has been incorporated with the agenda of 1,576 learning centers in the disaster prone regions of Rangpur, Mymensingh, Dhaka, Barisal, Noakhali, Chittagong and Rangamati. Activities under this initiative will continue till September 15, 2010. The novelty and uniqueness of the initiative is that local community, union parishad (UP), secondary schools, learning centres and Ganokendro (people's welfare centres operated by DAM), government and non-government organisations have been involved with its activities while all the institutions are working in close coordination with each other. Project activities include discussion, development of risk reduction action plans for vulnerable areas, education material for school children containing awareness messages on disaster, training module on Disaster Management Committee (DMC), handout package for DMC training, manual on post disaster care, volunteers' guide, posters on disaster preparedness, flyers and festoons containing awareness messages on disaster preparedness, simulation models on cyclone and floods and simulation focusing role of schools and students in disaster risk reduction. Mentionable, a team consisting of 14 Dhaka-based journalists of print and electronic media went to Charkhali village under No-4 Deuli Subidkhali union of Mirzaganj upazila in Patuakhali district on February 22, to witness a community based disaster risk reduction simulation exercise there. Held at Charkhali Samabae (Cooperatives) Secondary School, the simulation exercise has proven to be a success. It has created great enthusiasm among local people. The villagers were highly impressed by the extraordinary performance of the school students. Jahangir Alam, an official who is responsible for coordination and monitoring of the Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction Project told the visiting journalists that it is the people in the community who should lead this working together to safeguard themselves against disasters. The exercise, he said, was part of ensuring what they understand their already developed response plan, so that when a disaster hits, they would know what to do.
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