IWM to assess flood damage digitally to help victims

The government has taken an initiative to develop a digital flood mapping tool that will help to determine the extent of crop loss in different areas, benefiting small farmers and poor flood victims, an inception workshop was told yesterday.

The speakers said once the model was developed, insurance companies would be able to use it and offer insurance schemes and compensate the poor flood victims accordingly.

The Institute of Water Modelling (IWM), Bangladesh is developing the flood mapping index using remote sensing data with the help of International Water Management Institute (IWMI), Sri Lanka under a pilot project.

The workshop on enhancing the benefits of Remote Sensing Data and Flood Hazard Model in Index-based Flood Insurance in South Asia was held at Brac Inn in the capital.

Ismail Hossain, director general of Bangladesh Water Development Board, was present at the programme as chief guest, and Satya Brata Saha, an additional secretary at the disaster management and relief ministry, attended it as guest of honour.

IWM Deputy Executive Director Dr AFM Afzal Hossain chaired the inaugural session, while Giriraj Amarnath, project leader and senior researcher at IWMI, Sri Lanka briefly described the concept of the index-based flood insurance project.

A total of 74 major flood events occurred between 1980 and 2015 in Bangladesh, killing 12,669 people and affecting 250 million others during the period, the speakers said.