Farid Hasan Ahmed :
The southwestern summer monsoons occur from June through September. The Bay of Bengal Branch of Southwest Monsoon flows over the Bay of Bengal heading towards northeast India and Bengal, picking up more moisture from the Bay of Bengal. The winds arrive at the Eastern Himalayas with large amounts of rain. Bangladesh and certain regions of India frequently experience heavy floods during this season. Floods are natural events occurring in many parts of the planet coming each year to fertilize the plains.Bangladesh is a densely populated country.Given the hydrology, climatic factors and the geology, it is naturally prone to floods.Most of the land forms a delta from three major rivers – Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna – and 25 per cent of Bangladesh is less than 1 m above sea level. The normal seasonal flooding is beneficial as it provides water for the crops in the country.It also helps to keep the soil fertile.Floods are annual phenomena with the most severe occurring during the months of June to September.
Floods in this country cause huge devastation, affecting the most impoverished who live on the fringes, at great risk from flooding. For example, in 2007 flooding made 9 million people homeless and approximately 1,000 people died from drowning and from diseases.Now a day,flooding in urban areas is an unavoidable problem for main cities in Bangladesh. Daily activities in the cities are being nearly paralyzed and heavy traffic congestionsare occurred due to stagnant water on the streets and unplanned settlements.
However, Bangladesh has learnt many lessons from its experiences of last 40 years in flood Management. Bangladesh has developed capacities in Flood Management and demonstrated some success in this regard.
But there are still gaps, limitations and challenges such as resource mobilization and its effective utilization,sustaining community efforts, replicating good practices and ensuring regional and international cooperationto reducing overall flood risk of the country.Some recommendations are drawn to concerned stakeholders for animprovedFlood Risk Reduction system in Bangladesh.
Early flood warning system to be strengthened, with active participation of Community Leaders. Proper linkage among Bangladesh Water Development Board, Community Based Organization, Local Government Authority is needed to get periodical river water rise/ fall data, relevant to the area, as soon as the monsoon sets; selected and interested persons of vulnerable community might be involved in sharing the same with the community at large to assist in their alertness and over-all preparation.
The local NGOs direct intervention in conjunction with Local Government might be encouraged in this respect. Existing cross country cooperation on flood early warning systems should be strengthened.
Contingency planning at different levels for emergency response should be developed and updated at least once a year, focusing on (i) risk area and vulnerability status and (ii) availability of resources and capacity, apart from other requisite elements that feature in such a plan.
Emergency Fund mobilization needs to be encouraged in this area by relevant actors particularly NGO with proper management and plan. Emergency stores need be established and maintained by Local Government organizations, NGOs and social organizations to ensure prompt and effective disaster response.
Emergency store should contain emergency housing materials (quality polythene sheets), tents, life jackets, water purifiers, alum, medical supplies (including intravenous fluids and oral rehydration salts) and sufficient equipment for emergency personnel to leave without luggage in an emergency and also latrines for emergency installation, processed bamboo for the rebuilding of houses, megaphones, kerosene lanterns, hachaks (large kerosene lights) and pipes and other equipment for raising tube wells.
Basic training courses on Flood Risk Reduction is neededafter a proper gap analysis and planning for volunteers, managers, workers, government officials, local government representatives and media personnel, of whom 50% should be women. Specialized training sessions is needed for relevant personnel on the respective areas.
Flood management must be a combination of both structural and non-structural measures. It is needed for making embankments and taking river protection initiatives with appropriate feasibility and cost benefit analysis of independent authorities.
A public hearing and consultation is important in this regard. Extensive river dredging programme should to be taken with proper technical and economic analysis, and community participation to remove the sediments from the river bed deposited during flood to increase the water holding capacity of the drainage systems and to increase the water flow capacity.
The dredge sediment may be used to raise the level of land with proper planning. Technical considerations in flood risk managementshould not exclude socio-economic aspects.
Disaster Management act, Standing Orders on Disasters (SOD) of the Government of Bangladesh should be understood and exercised by all concerned with appropriate resources, planning, and monitoring and accountability mechanism.
The vulnerability of communities living in the most flood prone areas could be reduced by the construction of community-managed, women and children friendly flood shelters with basic water and sanitation facilities.
Home-stead and cluster village raising towards insulating the flood affected people against the hazardous curse of passing miserable days in submerged situation ideas such as climate proof development; land use planning, ecosystem services etc.
Tube-well sinking and sanitary latrine setting on high land as well as provision of kitchen gardening in the raised home-stead / cluster village and flood shelter, to ensure sound disease-free health and promote additional source of earning.
Seed processing and storage, Fodder storage system, and Bamboo processing and propagation, to serve specially the post-disaster need are necessary to promote.
New initiatives are required by NGOs and relevant government departments to identify alternative employment diversification of income-generating activities and livelihood opportunities with proper risk reduction analysis and consultation with vulnerable communities. Feasibilities of enterprise development and its market need to be done for the area. Enterprise Development activities require large amount of financial involvement. Therefore, linkage development with financial institutions to ensure the financial support is important.
IntegratingFlood Risk Reduction in existing development works and future initiatives of different government departments and others working in the flood prone areas is a must. Concern authorities should develop disaster data base which is very important to carry out detailed study and planning. GO and NGOs need to redesign their development programmes with the active participation of the most vulnerable communities to ensure that they maximize hazard mitigation potential and incorporate traditional community coping practices .Proper resources from central government and development partners should be ensured by authorities and policy makers.
Ensuring sufficiencylivestock and poultry vaccine as well as extension support of agriculture in theflood prone areas particularly in remote areas is important.
The respective authorities at different level should strengthened capacity building initiatives of local government.
A well organized effort is needed to further strengthening decentralized planning, implementing decision making process and the allocation of resource to local government for DRR and climate proof programme in the vulnerable location. Fruitful linkages should be established between relevant government institutions, elected local government authorities, NGOs and other social groups engaged in flood vulnerability alleviation activities.
Replication of tested flood preparedness interventions could reduce the vulnerability of the most flood-prone communities to floods and river erosion, The media should play a more sensitive and effective role in highlighting the vulnerabilities and potentials risk of most poverty and flood stricken areas and tested flood risk reduction initiatives for appropriate attention of policy makers and implementers.
Big river systems like the Ganga and Brahmaputra do not recognize political borders as they flow across Nepal, India and Bangladesh. A cross boarder approach to flood management is very much needed to protect the development gains and most vulnerable communities of Bangladesh and neighboring countries.Flood risk management should directly contribute to sustainable poverty reduction in Bangladesh and resilient to the negative consequences of climate change.
