South Asian disaster experts here on Saturday laid emphasis on enhancing regional cooperation through sharing of knowledge and technology among the SAARC member states to check river bank erosion, one of the region’s massive socio-economic and environmental threats. The SAARC has to address the issue with priority securing millions of people from involuntary displacement or migration, they said in the inaugural function of a seven-day training session for the disaster management experts of SAARC countries at the Dhaka University.
SAARC Disaster Management Centre of New Delhi and Disaster Research Training and Management Centre (DRTMC) of Dhaka university (DU) organized the training titled “River Erosion and Environment Safety Management in South Asia Region” at DRTMC. Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Professor Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique inaugurated the training as the chief guest. Hydro Meteorological Specialist of the SAARC Disaster Management Centre Dr A K Singh spoke on the occasion as the special guest on behalf of Director of the center Santosh Kumar.
Chairman of geography and environment department of DU Professor Abdur Rob chaired the inaugural session. Dhaka University Pro-VC (Academic) Processor Dr Nasreen Ahmed and Dean of Earth and Environmental Sciences Professor Dr ASM Maksud Kamal spoke as the special speakers.
Professor Siddique said Bangladesh is regarded as one of the countries extremely exposed to river erosion and embankment hazard-river erosion. “It causes much more destruction to the common people that any other natural disasters. It is a slow motion catastrophe,” he said.
He said monitoring river behavior and reaction of protection structures should be the core duty of the personnel having the responsibility of maintenance of any bank protection structures. Singh suggested for strengthening and supporting the capacity of the targeted community and institution to cope with natural disasters as well as providing livelihood opportunities through skill development, technology transfer and small enterprise development.
He also recommended for developing and supporting basic infrastructure services and enabling poor people to access existing government services as well as raising awareness on basic rights of the community with particular emphasis on land rights and rights of women.
“To address these issues, regional cooperation is no more a choice for us but it is gradually becoming inevitable,” he said. Noting that the river bank erosion has gender-differentiated impacts, Professor Rab said gender-responsive mitigation and adaptation strategies for river bank erosion are essential to adopt in this regard.
A total of 26 experts of eight SAARC member countries are taking part in the seven-day training under the supervision of SAARC Disaster Management Centre.
