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Disaster Management in Bangladesh
Important Links Bangladesh being an alluvial deltaic plain is divided into three zones, namely hills, terraces and flood plain. The country has an approximate area of 147,570 sq.km bounded between 20°34’ to 26°38’N latitude and 88°01’ to 92°41’E longitude and has 4,685 km. long unique geographical location forming a lower part of the basins of three mighty rivers of Padma, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna. Bangladesh with its fragile state of economy depends predominantly on agriculture that has strong linkage with seasonal weather systems. Due to the geographical location, the country frequently suffers from devastating natural hazards of which, floods, cyclones with accompanying storm surges, tornadoes, river-bank erosion, drought and earthquakes are the most disastrous to mention. Bangladesh being in close proximity with the Himalayas, the country has a long history of seismic tremors. Four great earthquakes of magnitude exceeding 8 during 1897, 1905, 1934, 1950 and another 10 earthquakes exceeding magnitude belt during the last 100 years. The colossal losses of lives and properties caused by natural disasters with repeated frequency in short intervals make Bangladesh as one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. Relief and recovery activities are now planned within an all-risk management framework seeking enhanced capacities of at-risk communities and thereby lowering their vulnerability to specific hazards. In line with the paradigm shift from relief and response to comprehensive disaster management, the Ministry of Relief and Rehabilitation before has been changed to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and in 2003, it was again renamed as the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management (MoFDM) . A series of inter-related institutions were developed to ensure that planning and coordination of disaster episodes were performed in accordance with the Standing Order on Disasters (SoD). As part of the paradigm shift earlier, the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) was created as a professional unit at national level back in 1992 under the then Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief. DMB was assigned to perform specialist support functions working in close collaboration with District and Thana/Upazila level; authorities and the concerned line ministries under the overall authority of high level Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMDMCC). DMB is a small dynamic professional unit at national level to perform specialist support functions working in close collaboration with District and Thana –level authorities, and the concerned line ministries under the overall authority of high –level inter-ministerial committee (IMDMCC). It is a technical arm to the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management (MoFD) to overview and co-ordinate all activities related to disaster management from national down to the grass-root level. As a continuation of the paradigm shift process, the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) has been designed as a long-term programme of the Ministry of Food and Disaster management with multi-agency involvement. Funded jointly by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Department for International Development (DFID), the programme was launched in November, 2003.
Important Links# Ongoing Disaster Management Training Programs # Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) # Flood Forecasting and Warning Center, Bangladesh # Geographical Information System |
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