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Facing the Challenges of Climate Change: Natural calamities, victims and prospect ..Aburushd Md. Ruhul Amin Frequent natural disaster is a sign of gradual change of climatic behaviour in Bangladesh. Bout of natural disaster is getting worst in this country day by day. Geographical location, configuration, number of rivers and tributaries and monsoon weather have already made Bangladesh highly vulnerable. And impacts of climate change have added diverse exposure of natural disasters. Like other parts in the world, impacts of global warming are being increasingly observed in Bangladesh especially in coastal areas. It is hard to find families that havent lost any relative or, family member in natural disaster. When Bangladesh step forwards on the road to recover the loss of a natural disaster she faces another in every year. Loss of property, manpower, natural resources, is taking the economy of the country aback. WATCH (Germany) and Maple Craft (USA) are two research institutes that have announced that Bangladesh is the most vulnerable country in the world due to natural disaster and climate change. A recent study has showed that, in Bangladesh 191, 637 people have died in 30 years. Among them 167,178 people died due to storms. Floods, cyclones, droughts, salinity, water-logging, river and coastal erosion, hailstorms, tornados, tidal surge, earthquake, landslides, tsunami and fire have increased a lot in fifty years. Low frequency but high magnitude floods have devastating impacts on livelihoods and the economy. Dr. Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, climate scientist of Bangladesh, has showed in his research that two to three decades ago from the first week of June till the 15th of November in average there were four or, five depressions to announce local cautionary signal no. 3. In recent years it has increased in twelve and in the year 2010 it reached up to fourteen.

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Major Disasters: Year 1970 1988 1988 1989 1991 1996 1997 1998 2004 2007 2009 Disaster Cyclone Flood Cyclone Drought Cyclone Tornado Cyclone Flood Flood Cyclone Cyclone Death 300,000 2373 5704 800 138,868 545 550 1050 747 4,234 190

Like flood, frequency of cyclones also has increased significantly over the years. Major cyclones in 1970, 1991 and 1997 caused over 500,000 deaths. Due to cyclone and flood that occurred in November 1970, about 300,000 people were killed and total damage was US$ 24 billion. In April 1991, flooding occurred due to tidal surges caused by a cyclone in the Bay of Bengal causing the death of 138,868 people in Chittagong and the damage was $ 1.5 billion. Cyclone Sidr was the worst in past years that hit the coastal areas on 15 November 2007. It affected 87,000 people, killed 4,234 and injured 55,282. At the same time 12 to 14 feet long tidal surge devastated households, thousands of farm animals. On May 25 2009, the Tropical Cyclone AILA hit 11 districts of south-western part of Bangladesh. More than 3 million people in Khulna, Barisal and Chittagong divisions were affected and killed 190 people and 7,000 people were injured. About 3,60,000,00 people became destitute. The impact of climate change causes riverbank erosion and the loss of productive land areas annually. Due to river bank erosion hampering 50,000 to 2,00,000 peoples livelihood and 60,000 people are becoming homeless every year.

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The Barind area is experiencing decresing rate of rainfall. As a result, the level of ground water is also decreasing. Excessive use of ground water level has also deteriorated the situation. Like this the area is becoming desert day by day. The river Padma has changed its course. As a result it is creating problem in the livelihood of the people and in harvesting. Droughts are also the common occurrences resulting in less or no yield of crops. In the preamble of the draft act, it is mentioned that it has become necessery and expedient to help the communities to: mitigate the potential adverse effects of hazards events and adapt to adverse effects of climate change. Bangladesh is taking steps on mitigation and adaptation to face these challenges. Though in the context of the whole world, the rate of carbon emission in Bangladesh is low, still Bangladesh is emphasizing on low carbon technology and renewable & alternative energy. Bangladesh has also become a role model on adaptation. But huge fund is needed to run massive adaptation projects. The rich countries of the world, who are largely responsible for climate change must provide the fund to the victim countries like us. Even they promised fast track funding almost two years ago, but didnt take any step for the fund's disbursement yet. Donor countries usually give a lot of commitment after each and every natural disaster but dont fulfill them. In this context, a complete and people-friendly Disaster Management Act has become a necessity. With an appropriate accountability arrangement for the responsible officials the Strategy of the act might be: 1. Disseminate disaster risk reduction and strengthen capacity through training and education. 2. Preparing disaster legislation, regulations and standard operating procedures. 3. Setting up disaster management information systems. 4. Disseminating hazard mapping and risk assessment. 5. Setting up disaster management plan in all levels. 6. Strengthening National/District Emergency Operation Center and Rapid Response Team. 7. Strengthen local capacity in disaster recovery.

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Utilization of the fund is another aspect. In most cases victims complain that they have been deprived from getting fund. Misuse and corruption in distributing fund must be taken care of. As well as, victims must be educated about their rights. In the section 21 of the draft Act the penalty is not sufficient. It should be at least 3 years and 5,00,000 taka fine instead of 3 months imprisonment and 50, 000 taka fine to discourage the misuse of the fund. Insurance for the affected people is also an important part. Under section 30 the insurance policy should be clearly defined and the term property should be well explained, especially for the flood affected or, hailstorm affected crop field, trees, poultry farm and so on. In part 1, section 2, the definition of property and insurance can be included. The Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004, changed the landscape of Aceh province at the northern end of Sumatra, Indonesia. What the country has learned in the aftermath of that horrific event, it has started to put this disaster management act into practice and the country is benefitting from that.

Bangladesh is experiencing natural disaster more frequently. Then why is it taking too much time to pass the act?