Abstract
Due to its geographical position, Bangladesh is one of the most disaster prone countries in the world. Natural hazards, i.e. cyclones, storm surges and floods extract heavy tolls on human lives and animals. Tremendous property damages, and the total disruption of development activities of the country occur almost every year. With about 120 million people living within 144000 km2 of land, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. It is estimated that a total 775 303 people died in the coastal and offshore islands of Bangladesh within the last 222 years (1775–1997) due to cyclone and storm surges alone. The main causes of these huge casualties were:
-
1.
A weak cyclone warning and weather forecasting system,
-
2.
false alarm with no cyclone/storm event, despite of high warning signals,
-
3.
no disaster awareness programmes were implemented in advance.
There are about 15.0 million people living in the vulnerable areas, covering 21 000 km2 of coastal and offshore islands of Bangladesh which comprise 14.8% of the land of the country. Although 1.3 million are accommodated in a total of 1 350 cyclone shelters in these areas, and a further 2.3 million people can be accommodated in school and office buildings, 11.0 million people (about 73.3%) are still unsafe. The Government of Bangladesh has given emphasis and priority to developing of the weather forecasting system using satellite imageries and computer methods. So, now cyclone warning signal can be given and disseminated to the community/vulnerable people as early as possible, by radio, television and information media at frequent interval during the event of a cyclone strike. Bangladesh has already established and set up a Disaster Management Bureau to coordinate disaster management through national to local level to pursue the objectives of the International Decade for Natural Disaster Reduction, IDNDR (1990–2000) to develop disaster awareness. One cyclone event was already successfully predicted on May 19th, 1997, which had a similar intensity to the May 25th, 1985 cyclone (where 11 069 people died on that day), but this time only 127 people died due to the early warning system and taking proper precautionary measures. In this article, disaster management and the development of a cyclone warning system in Bangladesh are discussed.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Akhand MH (1996) Bangladesh — Cyclone Shelters and Local Communities. STOP Disasters, The IDNDR-UN Magazine, no. 29-III., Geneva
Akhand MH (1997) Process to Develop Disaster Awareness. Annual Report, BDRCS, Dhaka: 69–72
Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (1996) Statistical Year Book of Bangladesh, BBS, Dhaka
Chowdhury IA (1996) Tropical Cyclone and Bangladesh. News Letter no. 2, Disaster Managment Bureau, Dhaka
Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) (1996) In: CPP At A Glance. BDRCS, Dhaka
Cyclone Disaster Management and Regional/Rural Development, UNCRD-CIRDAP Seminar, 27–29 January, 1992, Chittagong, Bangladesh
Disaster Management Bureau (1997a) Standing Order on Disaster Issues (in Bengali), DMB Dhaka
Disaster Management Bureau (1997b) News, Issue: 3–5, DMB, Dhaka
Japanese Red Cross Society (JRCS) (1995) JRCS Supported Disaster Preparedness Activities in Bangladesh. BDRCS, Dhaka
Mirza M, Quader M, Subroto P (1992) Natural Disaster and Bangladesh Environment (in Bengali), Centre for Environmental Studies and Research, Dhaka
Proceedings of the Seminar on Disaster Management, November 1993, Disaster Management Bureau, Dhaka
Preparedness, Damage and Management of the May 1997 Cyclone, Helen Keller International (1998), Bangladesh, Dhaka
Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) (1995) Volunteers Training Manual (in Bengali), BDRCS, Dhaka
WMO/ESCAP Panel News (1993), WMO/ESCAP Panel on Tropical Cyclones, No. 6, 7, 8, Dhaka
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2003 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Akhand, M.H. (2003). Disaster Management and Cyclone Warning System in Bangladesh. In: Zschau, J., Küppers, A. (eds) Early Warning Systems for Natural Disaster Reduction. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55903-7_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-55903-7_8
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-63234-1
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-55903-7
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive