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Islamic Relief worldwide, Bangladesh
Family Level Preparedness Plan A guidebook for filed practitioners
Disaster Risk Reduction Department, Islamic Relief Bangladesh Family Level Preparedness Plan
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Table of Content
Introduction to the Guideline---------------------------------------------------------------------------03
Objective of this Guidebook ----------------------------------------------------------------------------03
Importance of Planning for Disasters-----------------------------------------------------------------04
Institutional Aspect of Disasters ----------------------------------------------------------------------05
Sustainability and Connectedness---------------------------------------------------------------------06
Stages of Development of Family Level Preparedness Plan -----------------------------------08
Identifying Appropriate Family------------------------------------------------------------------08
Risk Identification----------------------------------------------------------------------------------09
Action Planning------------------------------------------------------------------------------------10
Putting the plans into action --------------------------------------------------------------------13
Review the plans -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------13
Consideration for Special Groups---------------------------------------------------------------------14
Annex 1: Specific Hazards, possible preparedness measures----------------------------------15
Annex 2: Causes of environmental degradation & the ways to bring community people
in action------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------26
Annex 3: Disaster supplies kit--------------------------------------------------------------------------29
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Introduction to the Guideline
Bangladesh is one of the countries which are suffering from adverse impact of climate change.
The geographical location of Bangladesh makes the country vulnerable to climate change.
Communities in Bangladesh are subject to potential disasters such as, floods, river erosion,
cyclones, droughts, tornadoes, cold waves, earthquakes, drainage congestion/ water logging,
arsenic contamination, salinity intrusion etc. this guideline will help to build the community
level consciousness about disaster preparedness and increase the staff’s ability to make
community people motivated to take initiative from the family level. Climate change adds a
new dimension to community risk and vulnerability by influencing the intensity of disaster and
disaster generally impacts the livelihoods of poor people physically, economically and socially.
This group of people has to go through certain vulnerabilities regarding food, shelter, health
and nutrition. Generally disaster changes daily activities of people and transforms their way of
living. People go through crisis of drinking water, shortage of food, loss of property and
unlimited distress during and after disaster.
This guideline shows the intensive impact and make all understand about the global changes
with the frequency of disaster. This guideline gives proper understanding about what to do to
prevent disaster and clarifies the need to engage community people in all activities. As the
community becomes more affected and looses the capacity to prosper, all the efforts must be
started from each family to fight against disaster and reduce the loss. This guideline not only
generalizes the staffs with the knowledge to adopt appropriate action plan but also to involve
community people for family level approaches.
Objective of this Guidebook
1. To make the staff understand about the need of family preparedness plan.
2. To make the community well concerned about the possible benefit of plan of action
through staff.
3. To promote the community with self motivation to adopt nature friendly plan of action
from family level.
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Importance of Planning for Disasters
The United Nations Strategy for Disaster Risk Reduction defines
Disaster Risk Reduction in the following manner: “The concept
and practice of reducing disaster risks through systematic efforts to
analyze and manage the causal factors of disasters, including through
reduced exposure to hazards, lessened vulnerability of people and
property, wise management of land and the environment, and
improved preparedness for adverse events”.
This definition guides us to the following aspects:
a. Disaster risk reduction is a pre-disaster phenomenon
b. It requires systematic and scientific analysis of the causes
and factors of disasters
c. It calls for reduced exposure to hazards and
vulnerabilities of the mass
d. It requires effective planning of resources
The above presented phenomenon requires for effective
management of the risk factors of disasters and hence planning
for the future becomes an important aspect in this regards.
Local communities, being the first to get affected by disaster and
last to get out has developed several indigenous to foresee,
prepare and mitigate the risks and affects of natural disasters.
However indigenous knowledge is not sufficient to fight with
natural disasters as it is not systematic in approach and
scientific in judgment. These poses significant value and
tradition of the local communities and blend in effort of local
Preparedness action is
carried out within the
context of disaster risk
management and aims
to build the capacities
needed to efficiently
manage all types of
emergencies and achieve
orderly transitions from
response through to
sustained recovery.
Preparedness is based on
a sound analysis of
disaster risks and good
linkages with early
warning systems, and
includes such activities
as contingency planning,
stockpiling of equipment
and supplies, the
development of
arrangements for
coordination, evacuation
and public information,
and associated training
and field exercises.
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mechanism and systematic effort can indeed reduce the risk of
the local communities to a great extent.
Institutional Aspect of Disasters
The most important concept in developing a disaster
management plan is communication. A staff needs to have
proper idea about the target groups and study the behavior
and attitude of community people towards disaster. When
staffs will have proper learning about the impact of disasters
based on specific area, they can motivate people and change
their mind to take proper initiatives to build a resilient
community and reduce loss. Every community member needs
to be involved so that when disaster strikes, everyone will
know what to do. Families living in disaster-prone areas, with
the ever-present risk of physical damage, are unable secure
good life style. Keeping this in mind need to prescribe disaster
preparedness activities and try to incorporate practical
livelihood management to make the community active and
interested. How well we manage the aftermath of disaster
Physical Resources
Shelter and infrastructure
will be damaged or
destroyed by an increased
frequency of flooding,
storms and climate-related
disasters.
Human Resources
Malnutrition and the
incidents of infectious
diseases are predicted to
rise with changing weather
patterns.
Social Resources
Reduced livelihood security
and prolonged or more
frequent droughts and
floods will lead to the
displacement of
communities
Financial Resources
The repeated failure of
crops or loss of
infrastructure and homes
leads to increased
household costs, decline in
income, slower economic
development and lower
livelihood security.
Environmental Resources
Increased salinity and
reduced land fertility
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depends a great deal on our level of preparedness when disaster strikes. A plan will only work
when everyone knows about it and agrees to operate within its guidelines. You need to keep
following things in your mind to provide information and make community people sensitive
about disaster.
Sustainability and Connectedness
Disaster preparedness cannot be completed without giving attention to environmental
sustainability and taking measures to stop the environmental changes that damage life.
Community people or in a broad sense human beings are to some extent working to spoil the
harmony of nature and making it bound to bring disasters. Willingly or unwillingly we are
approaching to the disaster because of our activities and for this everyone needs to get prepared
to develop knowledge about environmental degradation with climate change and pay special
attention to environment.
Disaster happens naturally and most often are in force as a consequence of human made causes.
Community people must grow the knowledge and sense to get prepared and stop harming
environment from family level. Getting prepared for the climate change will be done when
people will be aware of the environmental degradation and take the approaches in personal life.
This can happen when the sense will be developed and community people will come to learn
about the impacts of environmental degradation they are facing now and will face in future.
Also any initiatives of disaster risk reduction can’t be complete without inclusion of livelihood
aspects. Since natural disasters works as a barrier for economic solvency and ultimately
sustainable development, the linkages between disaster, poverty and sustainable development
needs to be analyzed. The following diagram captures a simple yet important aspect of this
linkage.
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Although the original idea behind the diagram is far from the scope of this guidebook, we can
utilize it for our analysis. While poverty reduction and integration of environment into
development helps us to achieve sustainable development, there lies a vicious cycle of poverty.
As development degrades the environment, so does poverty; however the catch is development
does this for economic advancement while poverty does this to meet the sheer need of daily life.
This is helpful in our analysis in a way that, natural disasters destroyer natural resources and
poor people are directly dependent on natural resource. Individual household need to keep it in
mind while preparing a preparedness plan. Please refer to Annex 2 for ‘causes of environmental
degradation and ways to bring community people into action’.
Sustainable Development
Poverty Reduction
Meeting the basic needs
Productive employment
Property rights
Population control
Environmental problems: pollution, land degradation, climate change
Integration of Environment into development
EIA
Technology for development
Migration
Renewable resources
Regional and international cooperation
Development Environmental Degradation
Poverty
Linkage between sustainable development, environment and poverty Source: ADB2002
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Stages of Development of Family Level Preparedness Plan
Developing of family level preparedness plan consists of several familiar yet very important
procedures. The stages of developing a preparedness plan are given as follows:
Identifying Appropriate Family
To identify the appropriate family we need to target the most ‘at-risk’ families and work
thoroughly with them to implement preparedness plan. To do this, we can use a scorecard
which can help us:
In case of requirement of a pre-survey it will help the field practitioners to determine the
vulnerable people simply and quickly.
It is simple and can easily be used by the filed practitioners.
This scorecard would allow us to have a ranking of the individual families and families
can be selected for plan development according to the lowest points.
Identifying Appropriate Family
Risk Identification
Action Planning
Putting the Plan into Action
Review the Plans
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Source: World Bank’s regular and highly detailed ‘Living Standards Measurement Study’
(LSMS) surveys.
Risk Identification and Analysis
For risk identification, please refer to the following PRA tools:
1. Hazard Venn: To identify and analyze the common hazards of the household, their
magnitude and likelihood.
2. Livelihoods Seasonal Calendar: To identify livelihood options and its seasonality
dimensions of the household.
3. Hazard Seasonal Calendar: To identify the occurrence and intensity period of listed hazards
and their changing trend due to ‘climate change’ in the locality.
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4. Hazard Trend Analysis: To capture the climate variability, hazard trend analysis needs to be
carried out.
5. Resource Mapping: To identify the resources available both inside and nearby the
household.
6. Facility Mapping: To identify the facilities available within the locality of the household
7. Structural and Non-structural assessment: To identify the structural and non-structural
hazard for the household
8. Capacity Assessment: To identify the capacities that the household members have for
DP/DRR
Action Planning
1. Action Planning for Hazards
Based on the Hazard Venn and Hazard Seasonal Calendar, list down the hazards, their relative
stand point in terms of potential risk for the household and the possible impacts that the hazard
can cause to the household:
Hazard Level of
threaght
Potential time
of occurance
Possible impacts
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2. Action Planning for Resource
Based on the Resource Mapping, prepare an action plan for both internal and external
resources:
Resource Quantity
Available Condition Quantity needed to buy
Internal
External
3. Action Planning for Facilities
Based on the Facility Mapping, prepare an action plan for both internal and external facilities:
Facilities Distance from house Contact details
4. Action Planning for Capacities
Based on the Capacity Assessment prepare an action plan for capacity building
Name of the household members Received training Training needs
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5. Action Planning Structural and non-structural Mitigation
Based on the Structural and Non-structural Assessment prepare an action plan for Structural
and Non-structural mitigation
Location of the problem Description of the problem Action to be taken
Structural Problem
Non-structural Problem
6. Action Planning Structural and non-structural Mitigation
Based on the Hazard Trend Analysis, prepare an action plan for climate variability by using
the following format:
Name of
Hazard
Describe
the
changes
in trend
Descrive
the
effects
caused
from the
changed
trend
Proposed
action to
be taken
Resource
needs
External
support
needs
Deadline
for activity
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Putting the Plan into Action
Based on the Risk Analysis and Action Plans, prepqare a action plan based on the follown
format:
Type of activity
needed
Who will
do it
How to
do it
Resource
needs
Resource
availables
External
supports
Deadline
for activity
Review the Plans
To review the plans, Risk Identification and Analysis and Action Plans must be
revised/updated and the plans needs to updates atleast once a year.
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Consideration for Special Groups
While analyzing the various information from the families, it must be kept in mind that the
special need of the vulnerable groups namely, women, children, aged and person with
disability are properly reflected. Also within the action plan, proper activities should be in place
for the vulnerable groups and needs to give proportionate importance. The need are different
for all groups, so in time of disaster neccesary things can be provided to all if the statistics are in
hand. In the group women, there will different needs for pregnant women or adolescent girls.
So this things can be taken into accpunt while identifying household and sheltering them in
time of disaster.
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Annex 1 : Specific Hazards, possible preparedness measures.
Flood
The term "flood" is a general or temporary condition of partial or complete inundation of
normally dry land areas from overflow of inland or tidal waters or from the unusual and rapid
accumulation or runoff of surface waters from any source. With 46 percent of the population
living within 10 metres of sea level, millions in Bangladesh are vulnerable to floods.
Generally in two ways flood preparedness measures can be taken:
Structural:
Dig pond.
Make Dam
Help government for drainage of river.
Building barrage.
Building sluice gate.
Afforestation.
Raising Homestead.
Raising tube-wells and latrines.
Establish block on two sides of road.
Build culvert.
Make guard wall.
Non-structural:
Formation of community volunteer group.
Give them training.
Form union disaster management committee, Upazila Disaster Management Committee.
Early warning through community volunteers.
Raising awareness thorough media.
Forming disaster mitigation plan.
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Training, networking, and advocacy.
Fund raising.
Take care of the infrastructure.
Floating vegetable gardening
Including the disaster related activities in academic materials.
Partnership with government, NGO, and local voluntary groups.
Aware people to preserve dry foods for the disaster period.
Preserving fuel and movable hearth.
Include disaster preparedness in school curricula.
Involve school children in community volunteer groups.
Aware people to save money.
Identifying shelter home.
Simulation of drills.
Enough stock of medicine and food.
DRR mainstreaming in local development planning in a flood-prone area.
Strengthening connections between local communities and local governments.
Risk-awareness programme for schoolchildren and communities.
Cyclones
Cyclones are huge revolving storms caused by winds blowing around a central area of low
atmospheric pressure. Cyclones affect the coastal districts of Bangladesh and cause tremendous
damage to/loss of: housing, agricultural crops, draught animals, food stocks and sources of
drinking water. In recent years, improved cyclone preparedness has led to a considerable
reduction in loss of life.
Structural :
Build sluice gate.
Build drainage channel.
Coastal afforestation.
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Coastal embankment
Improve housing conditions
Build shelter centre, Killas for the disaster period
Mangrove forestation.
Non-structural:
Forming volunteer groups.
Training of the volunteers.
Develop community preparedness plan.
Early warning dissemination.
Public awareness through volunteers.
Drills and demonstrations.
Knowledge dissemination through films and video shows.
Publicity campaign.
Dissemination of information through Media.
Include disaster preparedness activities in school curricula.
Organize meeting, seminar, workshop, and rally with the community people.
Form union disaster management committee, Upazila Disaster Management Committee.
Warning signals in the form of flags or similar symbols should be adopted for easy
dissemination of warning signals in societies with low literacy level and with limited
communication infra-structure.
Knowledge dissemination through poster, bill board, leaflet, calendar.
Teach the technique of preserving water and food underground.
Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) survey on stakeholders involved in disaster
preparedness activities to identify need for training and monitor progress in public
understanding.
Try to collaborate with local government, NGOs and other partner organizations.
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Cold wave
Cold wave is a weather phenomenon that is distinguished by a cooling of the air. During the
winter season, cold weather causes suffering among the elderly, homeless, young children and
vulnerable poor. The northern part of the country is particularly affected.
Plan of action:
Form community volunteer groups.
Train the volunteer to develop ethical point of view.
Identify most vulnerable and poor people.
Stock enough blanket and warm clothing.
Distribute those among people.
Earthquake
Release of energy waves called seismic waves in the crust of earth, leads to the creation of a
natural disaster called earthquake. It causes ground rupture, land slide, Tsunami (Tsunami are
large powerful waves caused by sudden displacement of large quantities of water in the sea /
ocean), floods, fire and Soil liquefaction. Richter scale is used to represent magnitude and
intensity of earthquakes. Those earthquakes which show reading of 3 on Richter scale are
usually not harmful as such, but earthquakes which show reading of 7 or more are extremely
harmful. So, more the scale of reading more harmful is the earthquake. Experts have been
forewarning a 6-7 magnitude earthquake to occur at any time which would cause unimaginable
destruction and death in a country that is ill-prepared for such a disaster.
Plan of Action:
Form union disaster management committee, Upazila Disaster Management Committee.
Form community volunteers.
Community risk assessment and formation of preparedness plan.
Training of volunteers on preparedness, first aid and rescue.
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Building knowledge for re-framing buildings' codes, guidelines, manuals and byelaws
and their strict implementation.
Inspiring community people to incorporate earthquake resistant features in all buildings
at high-risk areas.
Community awareness raising through entertainment(fun, game, drama, docudrama,
cartoon)
Distribute poster, leaflet directing measures for earthquake preparedness.
Provide knowledge to bind the heavy furniture with the wall using hook.
Information to preserve food and water.
Information to keep fire extinguisher, whistle and musk.
Involve school children for knowledge distribution and make them aware.
Trying to raise linkages with government to make all public utilities like water supply
systems, communication networks, electricity lines etc. earthquake-proof.
Giving training to the Masons, owner, engineer to construct earthquake-resistant
community buildings.
Provide technical training in schools to include disaster related topics
Train communities in high-risk areas in post-disaster search, rescue and relief.
Practice an extensive programme of mass drills in high-risk areas for earthquake
damage reduction.
Preparation of disaster related literature in local languages with dos and don'ts for
construction.
Getting communities involved in the process of disaster mitigation through education
and awareness.
River erosion
River erosion is the gradual removal of rock material from the river banks and bed. Riverbank
erosion is a severe threat to the livelihoods of poor people living along the Jamuna,
Brahmaputra, Padma, and Meghna rivers. People living on the chars are particularly vulnerable
and are forced to move frequently due to river erosion.
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Plan of action:
Form union disaster management committee, Upazila Disaster Management Committee.
Form community volunteer group.
Mobilize community to establish embankment.
Make community prepared to move in emergency.
Throw sandstone in river bank.
Afforestation.
Awareness raising to stop unplanned construction.
Afforestation on the embankment.
Focus on income generating activities.
Participatory monitoring and evaluation of the activities.
Drought
Drought is a normal, recurrent feature of climate, although many erroneously consider it a rare
and random event. Prolonged droughts are not common in Bangladesh. However, dry spells or
“crop droughts” can cause enormous suffering for the poor, especially for those depending on
rainfed, subsistence farming. Much of the western part of the country can be affected by
droughts, with the northwest being the most commonly affected.
Plan of Action:
Form union disaster management committee, Upazila Disaster Management Committee.
Volunteer group formation.
Community mobilization.
Information dissemination through media and entertainment.
Awareness to afforestation.
Establish deep tube well (if possible).
Establish sufficient tube wells.
Awareness to stop deforestation.
Help to build water reservoir.
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Stop wastage of water.
Participatory monitoring and evaluation of the activities.
Giving knowledge to use rain water and teach how to preserve.
Inspire to do subsistence farming and train the farmers
Landslide
The term’ landslide’ includes all varieties of mass movements of hill slopes and can be defined
as the downward and outward movement of slope forming materials composed of rocks, soils,
artificial fills or combination of all these materials along surfaces of separation by falling, sliding
and flowing, either slowly or quickly from one place to another.
Plan of Action:
Form union disaster management committee, Upazila Disaster Management Committee.
Form community volunteer groups
Provide training to aware people.
Information dissemination thorough media.
Fund raising.
Efforts should be continued to increase accuracy of forecast of landfall for enhancing
credibility of warnings to ensure preparedness and response.
Stop deforestation.
Afforestation on the hill slope.
Motivate people to not build home on hill slopes.
Stop hacking hills.
Involve school children to make them aware.
Taking shelter at shelter home during heavy rain.
Tidal Surge
Bangladesh is particularly prone to surges, because it is sited on a low-lying delta where the
Indian Ocean funnels into the Bay of Bengal. Abnormally high tide brought about by a
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combination of a deep atmospheric depression (very low pressure) over a shallow sea area, high
spring tides, and winds blowing from the appropriate direction.
Plan of Action:
Form union disaster management committee, Upazila Disaster Management Committee.
Formation of community volunteer groups.
Make disaster preparedness plan with disaster management committee
Early warning mechanisms
Considerable sophistication has been gained in storm surge forecasting. This gain
should be reflected in providing more specific information regarding surge height and
location warnings to permit effective evacuation.
Improve emergency response capabilities
Teach people to preserve water and food for disaster time.
Participatory monitoring and evaluation of the activities.
Build shelter home.
Monitor weather patterns
Advocate for public protection policies with collaboration with local government.
Cultivate a culture of disaster readiness at grassroots local community levels.
Training primary health care staff to manage and care for evacuees.
Identifying strategies to deal with mass casualties and large-scale disaster homelessness.
Dissemination of information through media.
Mangrove forestation.
Include disaster preparedness activities in school curricula.
Regular preparedness drills.
Identifying the best routes for transporting the injured, food and first aid supplies.
Saline intrusion
Saline intrusion is the influx of sea water into an area that is not normally exposed to high
salinity levels. This could be the inflow of seawater into a fresh water wetland or a fresh water
aquifer.
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Plan of Action:
Attention must be paid to improving water and infrastructure management with the
collaboration of government.
Protecting the low lying agricultural land in the coastal belt from inundation and
infusion of saline water during high tide by making embankments
Provide logistics and operational support.
Increase community participation in disaster management training, workshop and rally.
Motivate the people to stop shrimp farming as it is damages the fertility of land.
Damaged embankments and dikes need to be repaired.
Silted rivers and canals need to be dredged to allow for proper drainage and water flow.
Surface water irrigation systems need to be developed.
Mangrove forestation.
Seeds tolerant to saline and other stresses must be provided to the farmers.
Farmers need to be trained in new agricultural practices, from modifying cropping
patterns in order to cope with changing weather to ensuring the balanced use of
fertilizers and modern machinery.
Participatory monitoring and evaluation of the activities.
Tornado
Tornado is a violently rotating column of air, which extends from a thunderstorm to the
ground. Bangladesh also suffers from tornadoes and strong storms, which mostly occur in the
central and northwestern area of the country during the pre- and post-monsoon period. Reports
of tornadoes are not well-documented in Bangladesh and most studies have relied on
newspaper accounts.
Plan of action:
Form union disaster management committee, Upazila Disaster Management Committee.
Formation of community volunteers and provide training.
Early warning through megaphones and microphones
Establish shelter home.
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Make a disaster plan.
Build partnership with other organizations to purchase Doppler Radar and train local
forecasters to operate and maintain the new equipment.
Awareness through entertainment (stage drama, cartoon, folk song)
Train media to disseminate right information before disaster.
Involve school children in the community volunteer group.
Make disaster management committee more active to monitor progress.
Fund raising.
Teach technique to preserve food and water.
Build shelter home.
Taking shelter in buildings.
Train people to build tornado resistance building.
Capacity development of staff on CBDRR.
Participatory monitoring and evaluation of the activities.
Mock drills of evacuation.
Linkage with BMD for proper warning dissemination.
Arsenic Contamination:
Intermittent incidents of arsenic contamination in groundwater can arise both naturally and
industrially. The natural occurrence of arsenic in groundwater is directly related to the
arsenic complexes present in soils. Arsenic can liberate from these complexes under some
circumstances. The alluvial and deltaic sediments containing pyrite has favored the arsenic
contamination of groundwater in Bangladesh. The groundwater in Bangladesh has declined
progressively due to the excessive extraction of water for irrigation and domestic water
supply, lack of water management and inadequate recharge of the aquifer. Excessive
groundwater extraction may be the vital reason for creating a zone of aeration in clayey and
peaty sediments containing arseno-pyrite. The mobilization of arsenic is further enhanced
by the compaction of aquifers caused by groundwater withdrawal.
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Plan of action:
Encourage to use alternative sources of drinking water like pond sand filters and
rainwater.
Encourage using of surface water and it could be purified by filtration.
Removal of arsenic by chemical precipitation: Coagulants such as the salts of aluminium
and iron should be used to remove the arsenic from domestic drinking water.
Development of sewage and waste disposal system to prevent the contamination by
creating partnership with local government.
Make people conscious for less use of ground water for irrigation and develop alternative
system to save rain water.
Aware community people to stop wastage of water.
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Annex 2: causes of environmental degradation and ways to bring community people
into action’
Some causes that lead to environmental degradation:
Deforestation: it spoils the environmental balance and leads to soil erosion, river bank
erosion and drought. Shortage of water, food, fuel, fodder and shelter are some general
consequences in a community because of deforestation. More over carbon dioxide is
increased in the air and results in global warming which is responsible for climate
change and sea level rise. World’s low lying countries will be drowned by flooding and
people will turn into refugees.
Inappropriate use of land: when the land is not used in a proper way it reduces the
fertility and productivity. Community people must get concerned that same crops
cannot be planted in every season as it destroys the fertility. Even the harmful crops can
work for climate change and less production will only lead to environmental imbalance
but also to poverty which is a disaster for poor people.
Excessive use of chemical fertilizer: chemical fertilizer is destructive to nature and also
to health. It reduces the productivity and causes many diseases. More over it is
responsible for climate change which enforces natural disasters.
Throwing wastage here and there: this is a reason of environmental pollution and is
harmful for environment. Moreover burning of wastage creates fume which is also liable
for climate change. In time of flood, this wastage gets merged with water and pollutes
the environment and causes health diseases. If community people get aware of this they
can lower the risk of health and environment with small initiative of disposing waste in
a proper place.
Less use of sanitary latrine: this is another reason related to environmental pollution
and can be disastrous in time of disaster. Releasing stool in open place spread many
bacteria’s and specially again in disaster time it will make the health situation and the
environment worst.
Air pollution: air pollution can be occurred by many causes like burning of fuels,
burning of wastage, not using latrines and vehicles run in the urban area. All these helps
to raise CFCs which is responsible for climate change.
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Inappropriate infrastructure development: inappropriate infrastructure leads to the
environmental degradation like building new homes by cutting forest, hacking mud
from hills, building infrastructure by destroying coastal forestry. These not only
damage the balance of environment but also bring vulnerability by creating disaster like
land slide, river erosion, drought and flood for the community people.
Destroying bio-diversity & extinction of indigenous species: this will have future
impact on us and human being will suffer as we all are dependent on each other. All are
important for the existence of the world but deforestation, excessive use of chemical
fertilizer is responsible for the extinction of birds, useful insects. In future it will reduce
the production and balance of ecosystem. To be careful to climate change, we need to get
careful about saving all animals.
These above mentioned causes are responsible for the environmental degradation and it has the
correlation with climate change and natural disasters. Sustainable development which is the
major concern for every community will be achieved when environment will be harmonized
and will be given the importance. One thing we need to keep in mind that nature does not harm
us until we do not create the option. Community people who are the major caretaker of the
environment can be brought into the framework by making providing them proper knowledge
and support.
Some ways to bring community people into force:
Provide them knowledge on the interrelation among environmental degradation,
climate change and disaster.
Give them scope to share their experience about sudden changes came in terms of
climate and disaster.
Make them understand about human made impacts on disaster.
Knowledge dissemination on environmental degradation and its impact on food,
shelter, income generation and specially poverty.
Aware them to plant trees and provide saplings free of cost.
Suggestion to adopt environment friendly livelihood.
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Awareness to not use chemical fertilizer and stop misuse of land.
Proper water management must be done with other partner organizations help and
involve community people here.
Make people aware to save species and dispose the wastage properly.
Make the farmer aware about alternative farming system.
Disaster risk reduction and environmental consciousness will help to bring sustainable
development. Some changes we cannot stop but at least we can try to move forward with a
demand of ensuring healthy ecosystem which will reduce natural disaster. Community people
are most often dependent on nature and they need to know the importance of saving the
environment. We can provide them knowledge and support so that they can take the
implementation from family level and reduce their vulnerability or contribute to stop the
climatic hazard.
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Annex 3:
Disaster supplies kit –
1. Water 2. Food 3. Medicine 4. First aid kit: 5. Tools and supplies:
Knowledge
dissemination to
preserve water in
jar by placing it
inside the hole
properly sealed
with mud.
Have purifying
agents available.
Provide knowledge
to preserve dry
foods (chira, muri,
rice, molasses) in
container.
Preserve Staples -
sugar, salt,
pepper
Teach techniques to
preserve rice under
ground for the
disaster time being
Fever tablets,
saline
Gauze pads
Triangular bandages (3)
2 & 3-inch sterile roller
bandages (3 rolls each)
Scissors
Tweezers
Needle
Safety razor blade
Bar of soap
Antiseptic spray
Non-breakable
thermometer
Cleansing agent - soap
Plates and plastic utensils
Battery operated radio
Flashlight and extra
batteries
Cash
Tape
Matches in a waterproof
container
Plastic storage containers
Paper, pencil
Needles, thread