City Desk :
The Digital Flood Forecasting and Warning System has brought a new dimension in the country’s flood forecasting as it warns of local people living in flood-prone areas through ‘push notifications’ three days to three hours before a flood hits.
On October 25 in 2021, the digital flood forecasting system was launched officially to mitigate disaster aftermath.
Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), a2i, tech-giant Google, Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies jointly developed the system after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in 2019, reports BSS.
Officials at the BWDB’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) said the digital flood forecasting system was initiated in Brahmaputra and Padma catchments in 14 districts on pilot basis in June 2020 and it is now functional in 55 districts of the country.
The system is now able to send the people living in flood risk zones SMS notifications via their android mobile phones between three days and three hours before the onset of any flood, depending on the system’s predictive capacity.
“The BWBD has available data on flood. It sends these data to Google.
The tech-giant improved flood mapping using its topographical data and sends ‘push flood notifications’ to the people living in vulnerable areas,” said Sarder Udoy Raihan, sub-divisional engineer of FFWC.
He said about 10 lakh ‘push flood notifications’ were sent to three lakh android smartphone users in 2020.
“The FFWC of the BWDB is currently monitoring flood situation through 109 stations and forecasting advance flood warnings in 55 stations.
With technical support from Google, now it becomes possible to send flood information and forecasting to all the stations through the Digital Flood Forecasting and Warning System,” he said, adding that flood related warnings are now being available in Google Map and Google Feed too.
In addition, the BWDB, a2i, Google, International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have recently started a joint collaboration to reach the flood warnings and information at the doorsteps of marginal people living in flood-prone areas within quickest possible time.
Raihan said many people living in marginal areas do not use smart phones and they do not have access to interest and “that is why we are trying to introduce toll-free SMS service containing flood related messages”.
He said talks continue with the a2i and mobile phone operators to introduce the SMS service. “If flood forecasting could be sent through SMS, it would be possible to send about 3.6 crore SMS in a year through the mobile phone operators,” he added.
Flood is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. Every year, floods hit different parts of the country, causing a huge loss to lives and properties.
The floods have caused devastation in Bangladesh throughout history, especially in 1951, 1987, 1988 and 1998. The 2007 South Asian floods also affected a large portion of Bangladesh.
But, the Bangladesh government has already taken infrastructural and non-infrastructural measures to mitigate and manage floods, which have been lauded around the world.
