(P1-6) Community-Based Disaster Management: An Effective Approach in Bangladesh

Abstract

Natural disaster like cyclone, tidal bore, flood, tornado etc. is a common phenomenon in Bangladesh. Tropical cyclones associated with tidal surges occur at the rate of 1.3 a year in the coastal districts, cyclone in 1970 and 1991 claimed over 500,000 and 138,000 lives respectively in the coastal districts and offshore islands. The vulnerability is so miserable that they have to go and settle in the newly accreted land in Bay of Bengal and its surrounding areas which is occasionally hit by tidal bore or devastating cyclone. The main susceptibility comes from weak social and economic structures of the country. Housing quality, preexisting poor health and nutritional status, social welfare infrastructure, and economic resilience determine the magnitude of a disaster's effect and its long term consequences. In recent years, improved early warning systems and preparedness measures have helped reduce mortality, but no significant change in morbidity. However the effective disaster preparedness systems and capabilities for post-disaster emergency phase usually provides through volunteer contributions and local authority at the neighborhood level. The government's relief team, NGOs and foreign teams took couple of days to few weeks to start operation properly after devastating disasters like Sidr in 2007. However the basic survival and emergency assistance like clothes, shelter, food and medicine which saved thousand of lives were managed by community people themselves. Active participation of local communities, those have rich experience of coping with natural disaster both in preparedness and emergencies are essential for successful disaster reduction policy and practice, also putting value on our traditional social and cultural bondage. So strategies for disaster preparedness should be focused at family and community levels, support to community-based low-cost technology, promotion and development of human resources and integration disaster management components into development policies and empower the people to face the challenges of disasters.