Speakers at a national consultation workshop on Flood Early Warning Dissemination Process, held at city’s Spectra Convention Centre yesterday, expressed the need for developing the early warning dissemination system for floods in the country.
“The country is yet to develop a strong flood forecasting capacity,” said Dr Monowar Hossain, executive director of Institute of Water Modeling.
Regarding the limitations of Bangladesh Water Development Board, he said that it usually produced flood related information.
Monowar said out of around 300 danger points, the WDB measured the water level at only 78 danger points which proved its weakness.
Bangladesh is facing high risks of floods every year and most of the floods happen due to overflow of its 57 transboundary rivers during the monsoon.
Anwar Ali Miyan, additional director general (planning) of WDB said: “The WDB is trying to improve the early warning systems in different ways including strengthening a long range forecast.”
He said: “The WDB has taken initiative to strengthen the flood early warning range from 72 hours to 120 hours.”
Regarding to reduce the damages, Mesbah ul Alam, secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, said: “There are a huge numbers of volunteers for cyclone but there are not adequate numbers of volunteers for floods.”
In addition to forecast, the level of vulnerability should be disseminated among the people in different places as per the National Vulnerability Index for Flood and Cyclone, he added while addressing the discussion, jointly organised by ActionAid Bangladesh and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Bangladesh.
Regarding ensuring the lowest possible damages by natural disasters, Dinesh Kumar Mishra, convener of Barh Mukti Abhyan, a social movement of Bihar, India expressed the need for ensuring local people’s participation in the process.
