Dhaka is special and has been the centre for movements including that by students for the Bangla language in 1952, some other historical moments are 1969, 1971, 1990 and now in 2024. Thus, my focus is on Dhaka this time!
People in Bangladesh are vulnerable to extreme events such as floods, cyclones, riverbank erosion, salinity intrusion, seasonal droughts, and other catastrophes. Due to seismic zones in the northern and eastern regions of the country, earthquakes are also a major concern. Of all the disasters, floods inundate up to two-thirds of Bangladesh once every three to five years.
Disasters cause vulnerability and increase poverty, limiting the scope for establishing a just, equitable, and resilient society. Whether natural or human-induced, disasters have a disproportionate impact on diverse groups of people, highlighting the importance of social inclusion in breaking the barriers of inequality.
Women in Bangladesh face greater challenges compared to men during disasters. Despite challenges, South Asian women have proven to be of incredible potential in effective disaster response and management, which often go largely unrecognized. To build gender-sensitive resilient strategies in the disaster risk reduction process, it is necessary to address gender needs of women and men.
The necessary steps
To decrease the impact of repeated disasters, adequate planning and integration of disaster management operations with local and national development goals is necessary. A few significant steps have been taken to establish institutional frameworks for efficient and organized disaster management, which need to be reviewed for its effectiveness.
It developed a series of mechanisms from the national to local levels with the intent, one assumes, to maintain proper coordination between the concerned ministries, departments, line agencies, local government bodies, and community members, as well as to ensure their proper functioning. Standing Orders on Disaster (SOD) serve as a manual for these mechanisms and provide instructions on how to use them.
Bangladesh has been playing a crucial role in strengthening indigenous knowledge-based disaster response and providing support for building the resilience of diverse groups of people. Government and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), development agencies, academia, and other stakeholders are unitedly contributing to building a resilient country.
Bangladesh has been identified as a role model in facing the challenges of disasters, but intersectional communities need equitable attention in disaster risk reduction. Health crises, the absence of healthy practices, social behaviours, norms, gender inequalities, and other inequalities embedded in various sectors need to be scrutinized through an intersectional lens.
Following critical analysis, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (SFDRR, 2016-2030) was developed with a broader scope for addressing and integrating the gender approach in a comprehensive manner. There were pioneering research efforts that supported in identifying women as major contributors in disasters, and women were focused as crucial role players in designing, resourcing, and implementing gender-sensitive DRR policies, plans and programs.
But urban settings bring their own set of challenges with regards to disaster management. The focus of humanitarian assistance is thus witnessing a change from traditional rural contexts to urban contexts. In 2015, the United Nations predicted that between 2017 to 2030, nearly all global population growth will be in urban and pre-urban areas. An estimated 1.1 billion more people will make their homes in urban areas, making them home to 70% of the world's population. Bangladesh is also witnessing a high rate of urbanization due to the internal migration of rural communities because of repeated disasters, climate change as well as for economic growth.
The focus on Dhaka
This process is most pronounced in the capital city Dhaka, home to more than 20 million people. Dhaka city contributes 36% of the country’s GDP according to experts. The high density of people and infrastructure in Dhaka compound the risk for any natural or technological disasters. Flood, water logging, drainage congestion, earthquake, pollution, and fire are the potential disaster risks and challenges faced by a constantly increasing and rapidly expanding Dhaka.
Migration has resulted in an increase in the demand for shelter and housing in Dhaka, leading to rapid unplanned urbanization and construction of buildings, consistently defying the Bangladesh National Building Code and safety standards. These structures pose serious earthquakes and fire hazards, threatening the life of its residents. The lack of seismic risk analysis and emergency response management and the unavailability of technical expertise in vulnerability assessment and land-use planning thus leaves Dhaka unprotected from natural catastrophes.
Additionally, a critical lack of facilities and basic urban services, intensified pollution, water logging and the loss of green open spaces such as water bodies and parks, not only complicate but escalate the difficulties faced by the city’s residents. Such realities strain the lives and livelihoods of urban dwellers, particularly women, girls, and young people disproportionately.
Residents of Dhaka are still facing waterlogging and various other issues this year. After the flood of 1988, the western part of Dhaka City was being protected by embankments and raised roads. Despite protective measures, floods in 1998 and 2004 affected both the protected western part and the unprotected eastern part of the capital. Over 50% of the city's population, the majority of them living in slums, were severely affected. In 2007, around 90,000 citizens suffered a diarrhea epidemic caused by and spread through a week-long flood.
These can be attributed to the lack of focus from authorities like Dhaka Water Supply and Sewerage Authority (DWASA) and Dhaka North and South City Corporations. Given the number of decades that these problems have persisted in the city, irrespective of which government is in power, do I dare to raise my hope that it may change now? Flood and waterlogging risk management in the capital requires human sensitivity and intervention.
Adapting to urban challenges needs to be prioritized by stakeholders. An effort in this direction will be to develop scenarios with the intent to comprehend the impact of disasters on urban populations. Try and understand how the fundamental concepts of systems thinking, and context analysis, may play a crucial role in making disaster response approaches more effective and strategic.
Disaster management is a process of getting prepared to improve the impacts and to mitigate the risk of disaster involving emergency operation and post-disaster rebuilding. In the present context, public awareness, relevant budgetary contributions, and anticipatory planning and action is critical to address the problems and risks posed by urbanization and climate extremities.
To decrease the vulnerability of the city to different disasters, the government can integrate disaster risk reduction in ongoing development works and future initiatives by different government ministries/departments and NGOs and development partners.
Concerned authorities can develop a hazard database which can be used to carry out detailed study and planning. Some measures can be taken to reclaim wetlands, flood flow zones, rainstorm water preservation ponds, and waterways from illegal occupation.
The government authorities and NGOs can also redesign development programs with active participation of the most affected city-dwellers to ensure that they maximize the potential of disaster mitigation and incorporate traditional community coping practices which work because they are technically, politically, environmentally, and economically sensible.
Some targeted but tested risk reduction activities, both structural (waterways protection, infrastructure) and non-structural including abandoning single plastic use, can be undertaken in consultation with communities, relevant experts, and organizations. Appropriate feasibility and cost benefit analyses by independent authorities are very necessary before taking any structural initiatives.
It is imperative that a coordinated effort is taken up by the interim government to provide an effective response to the mitigation approach needed to achieve good disaster governance in building Dhaka as acceptable among the livable cities of the world. A public hearing and consultation are important in this regard. We are of the view that it calls for extraordinary decisions and actions in extraordinary times.
Farah Kabir is Country Director, ActionAid Bangladesh. Mail: farah.kabir@actionaid.org.