There has been an overwhelming understanding and acceptance by the vast majority of the scientific community that climate change is a reality, the impacts of which are likely to be far-reaching, affecting mostly the poor and vulnerable communities with least capacity and resource endowments.
Mitigation and adaptation are two essential responses to long-term processes for addressing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and reduction of climate change impacts, respectively (Rahman and Mallick 2004). These will require greater levels of scientific understanding and technology transfer as well as social and humanitarian considerations and responses. However, local communities are adapting with the changes in and around them. The responses and knowledge of the local community to reduce impacts of floods and other natural disasters induced by climate change are to be valued while developing response strategies and measures for adaptation and mitigation at all levels.
Bangladesh is a poor country, which may face many impacts of climate change in the form of severe floods, cyclone, droughts, sea level rise and salinity affecting the population, their livelihoods, natural systems, agriculture, water supply and health. Possible sea level rise will affect the country by inundating one-tenth of the land area in the coastal belt, dislocating millions of people from their homes, occupations and livelihoods. The poor and marginal groups would be critically affected in this process (Department of Environment, GoB 1994). In the last two decades, Bangladesh has experienced four devastating floods, which gives an early indication of increasing natural calamities as well as supporting the latest International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) observation that frequency of extreme events like floods will increase in the future.
This case study focuses on recent floods that affected the country and the responses of the country to mitigate flood risk. It also describes how the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) of the government of Bangladesh takes into consideration the real needs and priorities of the community while formulating and implementing programmes to enhance flood preparedness. The country report has been prepared based on both secondary and limited primary information collected from the field, including views of relevant and experienced people on the issues of community responses and the role of government agencies in relation to flood preparedness.
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This article comes from the IDS Bulletin 36.4 (2005) Floods in Bangladesh: A Shift from Disaster Management Towards Disaster Preparedness