Managing disaster for sustainable development

Bangladesh being a disaster prone country, development efforts would not bring about sustainable changes in the lives of people if disaster management, in particular, disaster risk reduction, is not included in the development programmes. Disaster hit people are generally left in abject poverty while poor people are more vulnerable to natural disasters. Climate change has added a new dimension to community risk and vulnerability. Both the magnitude and frequency of these hazards are increasing in Bangladesh due to climate change. International Climate Change Risk Assessments, published in 2010 identified Bangladesh as the world's most vulnerable country to negative impact of climate change due to high intensity of natural
disasters.
Over the past 40 years since independence, Bangladesh has increased its real per capita income by more than 130 percent, cut poverty rate by sixty percent, and is well set to achieve most of the millennium development goals. But this growth cannot be sustained if the future disaster risks are not minimized to a reasonable level.
Disasters like cyclone, flood and river erosion spell havoc in the communities in terms of casualty and property damage every year. The Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters estimates that about 229 million people  were directly affected by natural disasters between 1979 and 2008, with over 191,415 killed and economic damage  scaling up to US$5.6 billion.
Disasters affect all spheres of the economy -- agriculture, health service, education and transport. The agricultural sector contributing around 29 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and generating employment for 63 percent of the total labor force (BBS, 2006) is one of the major sectors to be affected by increasing frequency and magnitude of disasters. Health and educational infrastructures damaged by floods and cyclones hamper normal health service delivery and make continuation of education difficult for the students. Transport infrastructures are also affected. Infrastructures damaged in disaster need long time to be reconstructed.
Poor people are the most vulnerable to disasters due to lack of assets and capacity necessary to cope with. Affected people lose virtually all their possessions. Thus poverty level increases after major disasters. In order to make development process equitable (to both poor and rich) disaster risk reduction projects must be included in development agenda to address the need of vulnerable communities.

Risk and vulnerability
Numbers of assessment and studies have been carried out on risk and vulnerability of well as on adaptation capacity of Bangladesh to climate change where most studies show that climate change will enhance the frequency and intensity of the recurrent hazards.
Recently, Bangladesh has been mentioned as the fourth vulnerable country to extreme events resulting from climate change by Germanwatch in their Global Climate Risk Index 2013. According to the report, Bangladesh had experienced maximum number of extreme events in world during the period of 1992-2011. Bangladesh has experienced 50 terrible cyclonic storms and tidal surges since 1584 that have taken a toll of 672,000 people (Source: Disaster Dictionary-MoDMR). According to
In world Risk Report published by UIU and Nature Conservancy, Bangladesh is in  the 5th  position of a 15-country list that are at highest risk  of disaster driven by climate change where the risk index is constructed based on exposure, vulnerability, susceptibility, coping capacities and adaptive capacities of the people.
Extreme poverty put Bangladesh in the high vulnerability. Almost half of the population of the country (49.60%) have to survive on less than USD 1.25 per head a day, so interaction of high exposure and high vulnerability bears a risk for Bangladesh (World Risk Report 2012 and Global Assessment Report 2009).
Coastal ecosystems and communities of Bangladesh are going to be most seriously affected by climate change, with sea level rise and increased intensity and frequency of storms and extreme weather events. Bangladesh is a country with a high population concentration in low-lying coastal areas that presents a high level of risk for its population to hazards. Coastal ecosystem such as coral reef and mangrove degradation has posed enhanced risk of higher damage due to higher wind and tidal velocity along the coastline of the country.

Capacity gaps  
Exposure of Bangladesh to hazards is rising at an alarming rate due to climate change impact. Though the natural hazards cannot be prevented, but the risks and vulnerability can be reduced through increasing the capacity of community with preparedness. However, without appropriate and comprehensive plan and latest technologies it will be impossible to develop an effective response mechanism.
Bangladesh continues its effort to enhance capacity of the vulnerable communities, especially women and persons with disabilities through their active participation. Elected local government representatives at Union and Upazilla levels are key actors for all field level DRR activities where resources are allocated at the national level through district administration. But in this highly populous country with multiple hazards affecting the communities round the year, the volume of allocated resources is not sufficient to support the initiatives.
Often, dearth of coordination in fund allocation (between government and non-government agencies) reduces optimization of available resources.
Other major constraints and challenges which have been identified are as follow:
­     Hazard maps are not updated and do not incorporate climate change dimension
­    Lack of integration between DRR and CCA which also link knowledge gap in its interface.
­     Mainstreaming of DRR and climate change intervention with national development programme is needed and should be promoted in all development projects.
­     Lack of coordination between other ministries and Ministry of Environment and Forest (MoEF).
­     Lack of adequate regulatory framework.
­     Limited capacity of local level institutions /organisations.
­     Complex bureaucratic procedure delays implementation of programmes.
­     There is no system of evaluating effectiveness and success of DRR and CCA projects implemented by government and NGOs with public and international funding.
­     Poverty and lack of community capacity to cope and adapt to climatic hazards.
­     Sub-national regional focus is absent in disaster management regime of Bangladesh. There is a need for spatial focus in every region of the country.

Recent developments
Government of Bangladesh is implementing the National Plan for Disaster Management for 2010-2015, a long desired document based on the global and regional commitment of the government, and its vision on disaster management. Government approved the National Disaster Management Act 2012, and with a view to paying due attention to disaster issues, the  government has already established a new ministry and department to deal with the disaster issues solely in line with the new DM Act.

Concluding remarks
Bangladesh is highly vulnerable to global climate change impacts. Though affected by various natural hazards, the country has earned a good capacity to cope with them, in recent times, however, might not effectively respond to changing nature of hazards under climate change regime. Though government's capacity is well proven in disaster management, it may not perform its duty in an efficient manner during the spell of a changing pattern of disasters. For preparing for the upcoming natural disasters we need to enhance the capacities of communities vulnerable to disasters, local level institutions and grassroots community based institutions so that they can respond to and cope with future disasters.

The writer works for Islamic Relief Worldwide, Bangladesh Office.