BBS survey on Natural disasters
Tk 18,425cr lost in 6 yrs
The country faced losses worth Tk 18,424.73 crore over the last six years due to natural disasters, a survey report of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) unveiled yesterday.
Of the Tk. 18,424.73 million, 23.23 per cent losses were caused by floods, followed by 19.76 per cent due to river/coastal erosion, 15.41 per cent by cyclones, 8.72 per cent by waterlogging and the rest of eight categories together account for 32.90 per cent.
Of the damage, 36.20 per cent was done to crops, 26.72 per cent to land, 17.19 per cent to structures (residence, kitchen, cowshed, etc.) and the rest of the 19.89 per cent to livestock, poultry, fisheries, homestead, and forestry.
Loss and damage worth Tk. 3,640.8 million was done due to river/coastal erosion whereas damage and loss to land due to river/coastal erosion was Tk. 3,174.20 million from 20092014.
Planning Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal declared that a project to develop the livelihood of the people of disaster-prone areas would be undertaken. He was speaking at the launch of the Bangladesh Disaster-related Statistics 2015: Climate Change and Natural Disaster Perspectives conducted by BBS.
Presided over by the secretary, statistics and informatics division, K M Mozammel Hoq, disaster management and relief department secretary Md Shah Kamal, chairman of the department of disaster science and management, University of Dhaka, Prof. ASM Maksud Kamal, executive director, Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies, Dr Atiq Rahman, statistician and disaster-related statistics specialist, United Nations ESCAP, Daniel Clarke, and director general of BBS, Mohammad Abdul Wased spoke at the programme.
Programme director of the Impact of Climate Change on Human Life, Md Rafiqul Islam, made a presentation on the survey report.
Md Shah Kamal said the report would help them undertake any project to tackle natural disaster. About climate change, he said developed countries are responsible for natural disasters in Bangladesh. But Bangladesh is the one facing the losses, he said.
He said that if the sea level rises even by 3 centimetres, a huge expanse of coastal area will be inundated.
Of the Tk. 18,424.73 crore losses, Dhaka division has faced the worse, 25 per cent, followed by Barisal (20.07 per cent), Khulna (15.86 per cent), Rajshahi (11.77 per cent), Chittagong (10.33 per cent), Sylhet (8.50 per cent) and Rangpur divisions (8.47 per cent).
The survey showed that 56.52 per cent households were affected by disasters once, 26.57 per cent twice and 16.91 per cent thrice or more.
It was found that 24.44 per cent households were affected by floods, 15.10 per cent by cyclones, 10.59 per cent by thunderstorms, 10.49 by droughts, 9.84 per cent by waterlogging, 8.42 per cent by hailstorms, and 6.13 per cent by tidal surge.
Cyclones and tidal surges were recorded only in Barisal, Chittagong and Khulna divisions. Of the flood-affected households, 69.97 per cent are in Sylhet while 5.24 per cent are in Barisal. In the case of waterlogging, 34.88 per cent households are in Khulna division and only 0.65 per cent is in Rajshahi division.
From 2009 to 2014, 48.46 per cent households did not work between one and seven days due to natural disasters, but with a gradual increase in the number of days, the number of households decreases.
It was also found that the average working days per household were only 12.13. Of all the categories of disasters, floods caused the highest (17.63) non-working days.
The second highest16.86 non-working days per householdwas due to river/coastal erosion. The lowest, 5.30 non-working days per household, was caused by hailstorms. Of the 6,153,344 people affected, 1,223,835 households got early warning of the disaster.
