Reducing Disaster Risk of the Vulnerable People

Bangladeshhas a long history of natural disasters. The geographical location, landcharacteristics, multiplicity of rivers and the monsoon climate renderBangladesh highly vulnerable to natural hazards. Bangladesh suffers fromfloods, cyclones, storm surge, river bank erosion, earthquake, drought,salinity intrusion, fire and tsunami. Cyclones and floods particularly causedmassive damages. A large number ofpeople living in the southern Sundarbans coastal part of Bangladesh have beensuffering from the impacts of natural disasters.  

Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) is a nonprofit,non-political community-based development organization which has been working on Community Managed Disaster RiskReduction (CMDRR) activities in the Sundarbans regionsince 2016. BEDS has established a “Cyclone Shelter and Training Center” adjacent tothe Sundarbans mangrove forest. BEDS has formed a Village Disaster ManagementCommittee (VDMC) and provided CMDRR training to the committeemembers as well as established emergency fund for the villagers.

In recent days BEDS has been conducting a research on the capacity of theUnion Disaster Management Committee (UDMC) as it is the lowest tire of the governmentto work on disaster management. We have done SWOT analysis to assess the knowledge ofdisaster preparedness of the UDMC members of Shyamnagar, Satkhira. Shyamnagarsub district has 12 union parishads. We randomly visited 4 Union Parishardsthose are close to Sundarbans mangrove forest. We have done the SWOT analysis takingproper health and safety measures. We will conduct KII among the UDMC membersand then will collect opinion from the local villagers about the activities ofUDMC. 

BEDS regularly conducts meeting with the local villagers andprovides suggestions tothe local climatic vulnerable people on disaster preparedness. BEDS tryingheart and soul to mitigate the disaster risks of coastalvulnerable people. Recently BEDS is trying to raise funds through the GlobalGiving platformfor the project entitled “Reducing Disaster Risks of the Sundarbans Coastal People”. Wewant to help the flood affected people under this project.  We are extremely grateful to our donors for their continuous support. Wewould like to request to all our donors to start monthly recurring donation forour project.  

Bangladesh is a disaster-prone country of an area of about 1,47,570 sq. km. with a population nearing 140 million. It is predominantly an agricultural country. Most of the people of this country are very poor. The geographic location of the country is not so favorable. It is located in a disaster vulnerable area and due to this Bangladesh becomes the worst victim of natural calamities causing colossal loss of lives and properties. Major disasters that occur in Bangladesh are: tropical cyclone, tidal bore, flood, tornado, river bank erosion, earthquake etc. A large number of poor people are to live in vulnerable areas of the southern part of Bangladesh. The adverse impacts of all the natural hazards are affecting socio-economic conditions.

Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) is a nonprofit, non-political community-based development organization which has been working since 2010 to promote ecological balance and create harmony between human and nature. Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation is one of the main thematic areas of BEDS. BEDS has been working on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) activities in the Sundarbans region since 2016. BEDS has established a “Cyclone Shelter and Training Center” adjacent to the Sundarbans mangrove forest for the safety of local people. BEDS has formed a village disaster management committee, provided CMDRR training to the committee members, established emergency fund for the villagers, improved local peoples capacity on assessing their capacity and vulnerability, established signaling system, provided safety materials among the villagers, protected embankment by bamboo fencing and mangrove plantation and provided alternative livelihoods to the villagers of Mathurapur under Munshigonj union of Shyamnagar sub district of Satkhira district of Bangladesh.

In the coastal region every year lots of houses are destroyed due to the devastation of storms and cyclones. That results in huge life and economic loss. Concerning this, BEDS has made a design of climate adaptive house using local equipment with the suggestion of experts. BEDS regularly provides training and suggestions to the local climatic vulnerable people on climate adaptive housing. BEDS trying heart and soul to mitigate the disaster risks of coastal vulnerable people.

Recently BEDS is trying to raise funds through the GlobalGiving platform for the project entitled “Reducing Disaster Risks of the Sundarbans Coastal People”. We want to help the flood affected people under this project. Total budget size of the project is 50,000 USD. We would like to raise all of the project funds by 2020. So, our heartfelt request to you all to stand with this most disaster vulnerable communities in the world, so that they can live a happy and secure life from the attacks of destructive disasters.

From early June 2020, monsoon-related floods have devastated millions of people in low lying areas of Northern, north-eastern and south-eastern districts of Bangladesh. Mainly 80 percent of Bangladesh’s rain falls happens during monsoon season (June to October). Monsoon rains typically cause some level of flooding, but officials said this flooding may be the worst in a decade and the longest-lasting since 1988. “A third of Bangladesh is under water after some of the heaviest rains in a decade”, Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) official have said. The Disaster Management and Relief Ministry warned that 23 districts would be affected by the floods.

Till now around 161 people have lost their lives to the ongoing floods in Bangladesh, mostly from drowning, according to government data. Most of the flood affected areas people are severely lacking of pure drinking water, as most of the drinking water sources were drown into the flood water. Water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, skin-disease, eye-inflammation, bronchitis have affected nearly 28,000 people in the flood-hit areas. They include more than 10,000 diarrhoea patients.

Many flood protections structures, such as embankments and dykes, were already damaged from monsoon floods in recent years; the typical recovery cycle is usually three to five years. The country is also recovering from Cyclone Amphan, which hit the country’s coast in May 2020. And the COVID-19 pandemic has constrained response efforts. In addition, this recent flood would be devastating for the people of Bangladesh.

In this hard time of people, we would like to be with them with little support from our side. Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) is a nonprofit, non-political community-based development organization which has been working since 2010 to promote ecological balance and create harmony between human and nature. Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation is one of the main thematic areas of BEDS. So, in this hard time, we want to provide assistance to vulnerable families in flooded parts of Bangladesh who have lost their homes or livelihoods with global communities’ donation as BEDS fully depends on the foreign funding and donation for its development activities.

Recently BEDS is trying to raise fund through GlobalGiving platform for a project entitled “Reducing Disaster Risks of the Sundarbans Coastal People”. We want to help the flood affected people under this project. Total budget size of the project is 50,000 USD. We would like to raise all of the project fund by 2020.

So, our heartfelt request to all global communities to stand with the Bangladeshi flood affected people in this hard time. We believe that it is very necessary to work together in this cataclysmic situation, so that we could end the enduring of thousands of flood affected families.

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to cyclones and floods, particularly in the country's coastal areas. Cyclones and associated storm surges and floods have led to almost all the nearly 520,000 natural disaster deaths recorded over the past 40 years. These events also have the potential to cause significant economic damage. A disaster risk reduction approach helps us consider our emergency response activities in light of existing and new disaster risks. This enables us to design or adjust our activities so that people and communities become safer and more disaster-resilient, as well as safeguarding efforts to create and expand enabling conditions for sustainable poverty alleviation and development.

Last 20^th May our coastal people experienced another devastating catastrophic cyclone named Amphan, which wind speed was around 160 to 180kph and sometime it was rising up to 200kph. More than 24 lakh people were moved to 14,636 permanent and temporary shelters in 19 coastal districts before the cyclone hit the country's coast. Nearly 220,000 homes were damaged, of which 55,667 were destroyed, rendering an estimated 500,000 people homeless according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. A 2.7-m (9 ft) storm surge breached 150 km (93 mi) of embankments, leading to the inundation of roughly 100 villages. Water Resources Minister said 7.5 kms of protection embankments were washed away at 84 points in 13 districts.  20 dead cases reported due to cyclone Amphan. This disaster of Amphan reminds us again why we should prepare for the reduction of disaster risk and from this we got more motivation to work for the vulnerable people. BEDS has given shelter to around 600 vulnerable during this cyclone Amphan time in their Cyclone shelter and training center and provided food and emergency equipment in that hard time. Due to BEDS outstanding activity during the Amphan time many people got themselves secured from the destruction of Amphan.

From the lesson of Amphan we have strengthen our activities to aware people about disaster risks and what should they do in pre and post disaster time so as to reduce the loss due to disaster. BEDS has been working on Community Managed Disaster RIsk Reduction (CMDRR) activities in the Sundarbans region since 2016. BEDS has established a “Cyclone Shelter and Training Center” adjacent to the Sundarbans mangrove forest for the safety of local people. BEDS has formed a village disaster management committee, provided CMDRR training to the committee members, established emergency fund for the villagers, improved local peoples capacity on assessing their capacity and vulnerability, established signaling system, provided safety materials among the villagers, protected embankment by bamboo fencing and mangrove plantation, introduced low cost climate adaptive housing technology and provided alternative livelihoods to the villagers of Mathurapur under Munshigonj union of Shyamnagar sub district of Satkhira district of Bangladesh.

Recently BEDS is trying to raise fund through GlobalGiving platform for a project entitled “Reducing Disaster Risks of the Sundarbans Coastal People” for improving capacity of Union Disaster management committee members and NGO workers on disaster risk assessment, activities of pre, during and post disaster, signaling and climate change adaptation. Total budget size of the project is 50,000 USD. We would like to raise the all the project fund by 2020 and start pre-planned activities.

BEDS has a very good relationship with the local government offices and local NGOs. So, we are communicating with the regularly on how to move forward with disaster issue. So, our heartfelt request to you all to stand with this most disastrous vulnerable communities in the world so that they can live a happy and secure life from the attacks of destructive disasters.

Bangladesh is often cited as one of the countries with the greatest risk of being affected by climate change and natural disasters. Bangladesh’s coast more precisely the Sundarbans coastal region is the biggest victim to natural disasters and highly affected by climate change with problems including salinity and water logging, soil erosion, flooding and cyclones. With the prolonged natural calamities and geographical location makes the coastal people one of the poorest and vulnerable communities in the world.

In 2013, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) ranked Bangladesh as the most ‘climate vulnerable country’ in the world,while Maplecraft’s Climate Change Vulnerability Index (CVI) estimates Bangladesh to be at ‘extreme risk’ from the impacts of climate change by 2025. Disaster risk reduction has become an important national and international issue particularly in the context of some highly damaging disasters occurred in recent past over the coastal areas of Bangladesh like Sidr, Aila, Fani and Bulbul.

The coastal areas of Bangladesh have been exposed to natural disasters from time immemorial. People of the Sundarbans coastal region are not very aware of natural disaster. They are very poor and keep themselves busy in income generating activities even when there is high signal of disaster. Natural disasters in these region increases the vulnerability and in recent years it has been serious threat to the overall development of the country. The hazards of natural disasters cannot completely be prevented, but the risks and vulnerability can be reduced through increasing capacity.

Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) is a community based nonprofit, nonpolitical development organization which is working to promote ecological balance and create harmony between human and nature since 2010. In the context of disaster risk reduction BEDS is working in the Sundarbans coastal region to build the capacity of the most vulnerable communities in the world and to reduce disaster risk, minimize loss and damage and adapt with changed climate by improving capacity of the target communities on disaster risk assessment, signaling, pre, during and post disaster activities, adaptation techniques etc. using BEDS working experience and existing facilities.

BEDS has been working on Community Managed Disaster RIsk Reduction (CMDRR) activities in the Sundarbans region since 2016. BEDS has established a “Cyclone Shelter and Training Center” adjacent to the Sundarbans mangrove forest for the safety of local people. BEDS has formed a village disaster management committee, provided CMDRR training to the committee members, established emergency fund for the villagers, improved local peoples capacity on assessing their capacity and vulnerability, established signaling system, provided safety materials among the villagers, protected embankment by bamboo fencing and mangrove plantation, introduced low cost climate adaptive housing technology and provided alternative livelihoods to the villagers of Mathurapur under Munshigonj union of Shyamnagar sub district of Satkhira district of Bangladesh.

Currently BEDS has been trying to raise fund through GlobalGiving platform for a project entitled Reducing Disaster Risks of the Sundarbans Coastal Peoplefor improving capacity of Union Disaster management committee members and NGO workers on disaster risk assessment, activities of pre, during and post disaster, signaling and climate change adaptation. Total budget size of the project is 50,000 USD. We would like to raise the all the project fund by 2020 and start pre-planned activities.

BEDS has a very good relationship with the local government offices and local NGOs. So, we are communicating with the regularly on how to move forward with disaster issue.

So, our heartiest urge to you all to stand with this most disastrous vulnerable communities in the world so that they can live a happy and secure life from the attacks of destructive disasters. Truly your little contribution can make a big change.