Staff Reporter :
Speakers at a discussion in the city on Wednesday stressed the need for taking implacable action plan with proper integration among government departments and planners to resist disaster like landslide in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in the wake of the recent casualty of 166 dwellers in the hill region.
They have identified some reasons for landslides in the hills, which include irrational destruction of hills for human habitation, reducing surface greenery of hills, implementing commercial projects, unplanned housing development by settlers on hill slopes and developing infrastructures for connectivity without geological survey in the hill tracts.
Irrational and non-indigenous agricultural practices, rapid urbanization and lack of integration among government and private organizations working on the development of hills also contributed to such calamity, they pointed out.
The suggestions came from a discussion on ‘Land Slide in the Hills and What to Do’, organized by the Bangladesh Institute of Planners (BIP) at the National Press Club of the city.
Chaired by BIP president Professor Dr Abul Kalam, the discussion was addressed, among others, by Director of Geological Survey of Bangladesh Reshad Md Akram Ali, Chairman of Disaster Science and Management Department at Dhaka University Professor Dr ASM Maksud Kamal , Urban planner Bayes Ahmed, President of BIP Professor Dr AKM Abul Kalam, Professor of Geography and Environment at Dhaka University Dr Shahidul Islam, Director General of Bangladesh Fire Service and Civil Defense Department Brigadier General (Retd) Ali Ahmmad Khan, Executive Director of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (BELA) Sayeda Rizwana Hasan and General Secretary of BIP Professor Dr Akhter Mahmud.
To prevent landslide, hill tracts have to be protected from illegal commercial use, said Bayes Ahmed who presented the keynote paper at the discussion.
“Our hills are being crashed down without considering the environmental aspects for rapid urbanization and infrastructure development. It’s necessary to preserve the hills from now on for keeping natural geological characteristics to avoid landslide and prevent causality by such disaster,” he added. “More shelters should be made to safeguard the inhabitants during the risky periods stretching from June to September each year,” Ahmed said.
He also laid emphasis on introducing early landslide warning system using contemporary technologies like GIS, Remote Sensing, Nano-Satellite and Web-GIS to relocate the people living on hill slopes 5-7 days before occurrence of any landslide.
Dr Shahidul Islam of Dhaka University suggested the government should be keen to implement the action plan adequately with more political inquisitiveness.
“Most often experts’ recommendations in the development process are avoided by bureaucrats and most of the project directors are non-technical persons who overlook the knowledge based recommendations in our country,” he added.
“There are punishable laws in the country. The laws should be enforced properly to punish the people who destroy the hills and forests of the country,” said Sayeda Rizwana Hasan of BELA.
The BELA chief also pointed out that the people or groups engaged with such destruction process are either backed by political parties or administration.
