'Bangladesh has enviable disaster preparedness'

CHITTAGONG, Jan 22: Communications Minister Anwar Hossain said here today that Bangladesh has developed a national disaster preparedness programme through years of sufferings and experiences in order to minimise death and destruction by natural calamities, reports BSS.

The international community, he said, has provided commendable help and cooperation in this regard as our country frequently faces natural disasters.

Speaking as chief guest at the inaugural function of a five-day workshop on "Disaster reporting," the minister said, media reporting on disasters has improved a lot inspite of our limitations and the journalists should now report the facts to establish people's confidence in their writing.

The workshop was organised by the Bangladesh chapter of Commonwealth Journalists Association (CJA). Fifteen reporters from different newspapers are taking part in the workshop. The inaugural function, presided over by the chapter president Hassan Shahriar, was addressed, among others, by Paul Brown of Guardian newspaper London, Red Cross representative Jahn Francis, senior journalists ABM Musa, Abdur Rahman Khan, chapter Secretary General Farid Hossain and Osman Gani Mansur, course coordinator. Paul Brown is conduct in the workshop.

The communications minister said, we have developed our technological capacity to warm people against an impending cyclone so that they can take shelter. Radio, television, and journalists can play a vital role in highlighting the positive good developments we have achieved in our country, he added.

The minister said Bangladesh had built an enviable disaster preparedness to save lives and property of the people during cyclone. He said, we have now 1200 multistoried cyclone shelters in the coastal belts and 30,000 Red Crescent volunteers who remain ready to evacuate people.