UNB, Dhaka :
US Ambassador in Dhaka Dan W Mozena on Monday stressed establishing a centralised command and control centre in Bangladesh with a view to carrying out rescue operation effectively following any earthquake to minimise the disaster aftermath.
“…a centralised command and control centre-some kind of national disaster management centre-that will survive a calamitous earthquake and be available to support rapid and effective decision making,” he said while addressing the opening ceremony of a programme at a city hotel.
Bangladesh Armed Forces Division and US Army Pacific jointly arranged the four-day event-Fifth Bangladesh Disaster Response Exercise and Exchange 2014.
Mozena urged the government of Bangladesh to give urgent consideration to such a disaster management centre soonest. “I’m sure that America and Bangladesh’s many other international friends would be helpful in this endeavor,” he said.
Referring to the last year’s factory building collapse, the US envoy said the Rana Plaza was a taste of what would happen when Dhaka is hit by a major earthquake. “According to one government of Bangladesh estimate, if a 7.0 richter scale earthquake strikes Dhaka, at least 70,000 of the city’s 350,000 buildings will collapse.”
Of course, he sad, simply having a seismically safe command and control center is not in itself sufficient. So, the government needs to ensure that the right decision makers are available to populate the center and use it to orchestrate a fast and effective rescue effort followed by recovery efforts.
Mozena said, the first step in this regard is to identify the key decision makers whose participation is critical in the wake of a disaster. “Once these individuals are identified, then the government needs to ensure that they live and work in buildings that will survive an earthquake.”
