State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Dr Md Enamur Rahman said contextualized early warning systems and flood action plans are contributing towards turning Bangladesh into a role model in dealing with disasters.
The state minister came up with the remark on Tuesday while attending an inception function of a five-year-long Flood Resilience Project as the chief guest in the city, said a press release.
Dr Enam also put emphasize on better collaboration between the government and NGO initiatives to enhance the community flood resilience. General Economic Division Member of Planning Commission Dr Shamsul Alam and Director (research) of Department of Disaster Management Md Harun Rashid Mollah addressed the event as special guests.
Addressing the function, Dr Shamsul underscored the importance of Delta Plan 2100 focusing on flood early warning systems at a regional scale. Bangladesh is one of the most flood-prone countries in the world, he said, adding that floods have significantly attributed to 520,000 deaths in the last 40 years in the country.
The devastating floods in 1998 and 2004 caused damage of US$2.8 billion and $2.2 billion respectively or about 5 per cent GDP in those years. Regarding the flood situation in Bangladesh, Concern Worldwide, Mercy Corps and Practical Action have initiated a five-year ‘Flood Resilience Project’ in Bangladesh with support of Zurich Foundation. The project will work to enhance flood resilience in a number of communities across the char (sandbar) and coastal flood contexts to generate new evidence and learning on how community resilience to flooding across different floods hazard contexts can be improved. Country Director of Practical Action Hasin Jahan elaborately discussed the evidences generated towards making the community flood-resilient in the flood-prone areas of Sirajganj district.
She also explained how contextualized weather information and early warning can build the resilience.
The Zurich Flood Resilience Alliance is a multi-sectoral partnership focusing on finding practical ways to help communities in developed and developing countries strengthen their resilience to flood risk. The Alliance will reach 72,000 people in Bangladesh to reduce the negative impacts of flooding on their lives and livelihoods. This project is going to be implemented with Assistance from Social Organization and Development (ASOD) and Village Education Resource Centre (VERC).
Country Director of Concern Worldwide AKM Musha delivered the welcome speech and while Rumana Binte Masud of Mercy Corps gave the concluding remarks.
