The World Bank has approved a $500 million credit to help Bangladesh improve disaster preparedness against inland flooding in 14 flood-prone districts benefiting over 1.25 million people. The Resilient Infrastructure for Adaptation and Vulnerability Reduction (RIVER) project will help Bangladesh reduce vulnerability to riverine and flash floods by constructing over 500 multipurpose flood shelters, access roads, and climate-resilient community infrastructure. In normal times, the flood shelters will operate as primary schools and they will be equipped with solar energy systems, water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities, that cater to the needs of women and vulnerable populations. The project will also help strengthen the capacity of communities and government agencies to prepare and respond to floods and undertake behavioral change interventions, said a press release.   “The heart-wrenching flood situation in Sylhet region is a stark reminder of the increasing risks of climate change to development - more frequent, unpredictable and intense natural disasters,” said Mercy Tembon, World Bank Country Director for Bangladesh and Bhutan. “Building on our five-decade long partnership of improving disaster risk management in the coastal region, this project will help Bangladesh improve disaster preparedness in the non-coastal flood-prone areas. It will also support the country’s transition from a disaster response to a disaster risk management approach,” she added.   The release said Bangladesh, a low-lying Delta, is highly vulnerable to the effects of climate change-related natural disasters, including floods and cyclones. With climate change, the magnitude and intensity of floods are increasing. Every year, floods and riverbank erosion affect about one million people but in some years, the numbers can be substantially higher. The project will help save lives and properties in the highly flood-prone districts in the Teesta-Brahmaputra-Jamuna, Padma, and Surma-Meghna river basins, which are: Nilpamari, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Rangpur, Gaibandha, Bogura, Pabna, Sirajganj, Rajbari, Faridpur, Gopalganj, Madaripur, and Sunamganj, Habiganj.   “Inadequate evacuation facilities for people and their livestock in highly flood-prone areas not only leads to the loss of lives and livelihoods, but it also hampers the ability to provide adequate relief,” said Ignacio Urrutia, World Bank Team Leader for the project. “This project will contribute to developing evacuation facilities that provide WASH, apply gender-sensitive design, and provide sufficient space for community members and livestock, while at the same time benefiting the community in regular times,”added Urrutia.   The project will also develop a database on the availability and condition of flood shelters, which will be critical for disaster preparedness and future investment planning.   The project will support the Bangladesh Delta Plan 2100, a long-term plan to achieve a safe, climate-resilient, and prosperous delta, as well as the World Bank Group’s Climate Change Action Plan 2021-2025.   The credit is from the World Bank’s International Development Association (IDA), which provides concessional financing, and has a 30-year term, including a five-year grace period. The World Bank was among the first development partners to support Bangladesh and has committed $37 billion in grants, interest-free, and concessional credits to the country since its Independence. Currently, Bangladesh has the largest ongoing IDA program in the world. Source: BSS AH

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ordered continued review of preparedness measures for facing disasters alongside launching of a nationwide awareness campaign attributing repeated incidents of fire to lack of wakefulness. “Review continuously the government initiatives for successfully handling the natural disasters and fix what should be done,” she said as she chaired a National Disaster Management Council (NDMC) meeting at the PMO on Thursday. Reports BSS. Simultaneously, she said, a nationwide awareness campaign has to be launched alongside taking timely measures to minimize damages from the disasters. “Creating awareness among the people is necessary . . . alongside taking timely measures from the national, organizational and personal level to minimize disaster damages,” she said. The premier herself heads the NDMC which incorporates ministers, senior civil and military officials including chiefs of the three armed forces and heads of law enforcement agencies. The premier asked concerned authorities to publicize the government’s disaster related directives to let everyone understand what one should do while facing disasters. Sheikh Hasina urged all stakeholders to work in a coordinated manner to minimize people’s sufferings during floods and all other natural disasters asking all to keep in mind that geo-physical features exposed Bangladesh to repeated natural disasters. “So, we have to live with the phenomenon with necessary plans to keep the extent of damages and loss of lives to a minimal level during any catastrophe,” the premier said. The premier said massive infrastructural developments also invites disasters like inferno while referring to the recent FR Tower and Churihatta blazes in the capital claiming many lives. She said her government, however, always responded very fast whenever it received forecast of any disaster, engaging every human and material support to reduce the loss of lives and property unlike the previous regimes. Sheikh Hasina said apart from all concerned government offices, the ruling Awami League workers worked sincerely to reach food, medicine and other relief materials to the affected people. She recalled that the then BNP government took no step while the deadly 1991 cyclone hit the south-eastern coastlines saying “even they didn’t care to have information about the disaster”. Sheikh Hasina said the post independence Bangabandhu government had planned to build 1000 cyclone shelter centers called “Mujib Killa” along the southern coastlines to protect the belt from tidal surges and cyclones. Following that footprint, she said, the present government took many steps for disaster management while it successfully the protracted 1998 deluge which even inundated the Dhaka city amid a prediction that the flood could kill 20 million people. The Prime Minister said the government took necessary measures to avoid any possibility of food shortage and keep the sufferings of the people to a tolerant level. The present government, she said, is raising volunteers for post earthquake rescue operation and disaster management. Sheikh Hasina said flood affects people including farmers damaging households and crops and reminded all that it also benefits the yields carrying silt and other ingredients to make the cultivable land more fertile. The premier asked the people to be cautious in using modern equipment such as electricity, gas cylinder and flammable substances to minimize the risk caused by the modernization, saying, “modernization gives us comfort, but it also creates risks. We should be careful to keep the risk at the minimum level”. She asked the people to remain careful and prepared in their offices and houses to face any disasters. Referring to the 1991 cyclone during the BNP-Jamaat regime, she said, “The then government was not aware about the disaster for which thousands of people were killed”. She also said her government had successfully tackled the 1997 cyclone, recalling that she cancelled her Spain tour soon after the cyclone hit Bangladesh. The PM asked the National Disaster Management Council to make it’s preparation time-befitting to fix do’s and don’ts to face the disasters in the coming days. AH