Zonal mapping for landslide vulnerability
A landslide-devastated area
Death toll due to landslide in torrential rain has exceeded one hundred in Chittagong, Cox's Bazar and the Hill Tracts. And there is high possibility that the number may increase. In 2007, a massive landslide following a heavy rain on June 11 claimed some 132 lives. But perhaps, the land slide this year is going to be the most devastating one in recent times. Though there is no strong database to figure the trend of landslide in Bangladesh, we come across these sorts of causalities almost every year in June and July. But this year, it has turned to be a demon for the poor victims living just beside the hilly areas or hills. Media reports say that families of the deceased have been compensated with twenty thousand taka from the government. This is quite ridiculous because, with this amount, they cannot even make a temporary shelter to stay for a few days and save themselves from the rains. What will these people do with this little amount of money? Is it a compensation for death? Every sensible people is shocked seeing the reports in newspapers and TV channels. The way the incidents and sufferings of the people have been portrayed, has touched everyone in this country, I believe. But, unfortunately, we are not being able to do something substantial for them. Regrettably it is some of us, living in the civil society with big name and position, are responsible in many ways for this catastrophe. In the history of disaster management of our country, we do not see that a government or any development agency has taken any effective preventive measure to save these wretched people from this hazard. We all know that there are some other big factors working behind and if government wants to address the root cause of this problem, many big guns will be dissatisfied, and so the policy makers and law-enforcing agencies keep mum due to the existence of such invisible hand of politics. Experts claim that the major reason behind landslide is hill cutting, which is all done by the people who can really have the strength (money and influence) of cutting a hill. They all are backed by some political leaders, especially of the ruling parties or some other people who once held big positions in our administration. Blessed people of our country visit the beautiful hill tracts of Chittagong and then do everything to destroy the beauty of it. Who will bell the cat? Landslide is a disaster having a different pattern and impact that the other disasters do not have in Bangladesh. If we take a look of the people becoming victims of different disasters, we will see a difference in them as well. Who die from landslide? They are the ethnic minority or those who have nothing i.e. extreme poor. Only these people mainly live beside the hills and get killed by landslides. Who will think for them? And when the interest of the so called big guns is the major reason for the suffering of these people, who will take initiative to prevent hill cutting and save these poor people? People over there have been warned; the local authorities and volunteers have disseminated messages using mikes and mega-phones, but people did not leave their vulnerable tiny houses. This is not because they are not anxious of their lives, it is because they do not have any other place where they can take shelter or where they can save themselves from the heavy rainfall and sleep at night. These poor people with their most valuable wealth of life i.e. children, wife, parents, are living in the death-trap laps of the hills. What we have done for them or what we are doing for them now? Have we stopped cutting the hills? Have we taken them to a safe place? Have we given them sufficient support to lead their lives in these rainy days? The answer is perhaps, 'not at all'. Now in this situation, we need to take some very prompt and immediate initiatives so that the search and rescue is done properly and, most importantly, the affected people are rehabilitated and given proper food and treatment. It is now a must for the government and non-government agencies to come forward, not with just twenty thousand taka, but with a substantial support that is necessary for saving the people in these vulnerable places. Secondly and most importantly, I would propose to have a risk zone mapping for the Chittagong Division and come up with some comprehensive programmes for this region. In South Asia, Nepal is developing this risk zone mapping for the entire country as land slide is very frequent there. We initially do not need to prepare this map to identify the areas vulnerable to landslide for the whole country, but we need to develop this at least for the Chittagong Division. After soil testing, up to as micro level as we can, we can prepare a map for this zone that will identify highly vulnerable places to landslide based on the soil quality, structure and pattern. Then what we need to do is to avoid our as usual development approach i.e. making people obliged to live in safe place after giving them some incentives like building safe houses for them in those identified safe places. We need to let them live in their natural habitat and that is why, pushing the people especially the 'Paharis' to live in our prescribed place needs to be avoided. Rather, we can raise mass awareness among them showing the safe places and then informing the benefit they can get if they move to those places and live in their own way. For many reasons, this part of our country is very important for us and that is why we need to concentrate on the preservation and development of this area. First, we need to stop hill cutting in any way and for this, the government needs to come up with stringent laws and their effective implementation. And secondly, prepare a risk map for Chittagong Division indicating vulnerable areas. A government and non-government collaborative effort will be essential for coming up with some comprehensive approach to make this region a safer living place for people. We can also come up with some early warning strategy for landslide by analyzing the trend of rainfall over the last 30 years and the event of landslide in the Hill Tracts. There is a correlation between the amount of rain fall and severity or possibility of landslide. Through this, we can also give early cautionary messages to the people living in the hill tracts. I am afraid that perhaps it is just the starting for this year which is very crucial for us in regards to disaster management. So, any sincere initiative from the government will obviously be welcomed by the common people. They will be ready to volunteer all out support. The writer is a development researcher and works for Islamic Relief Worldwide. Email: mithunmds07@gmail.com
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