Community-Based Cyclone Preparedness Programme in Bangladesh: An Overview

Abstract

Natural and anthropogenic disasters batter the earth and its inhabitants frequently with enormous loss of human lives, livestock and property. Over the years, national and international agencies have developed a working system of disaster mitigation with forewarning and prevention, preparedness, emergency response and post-disaster recovery. But these systems have not been able to reduce the vulnerability and risk to the desired level. Although communities are the first responders to meet the challenges of disasters, they are not efficiently integrated into these efforts. In Bangladesh, as elsewhere in the developing world, the vulnerability of a large section of the poor and socially disadvantaged groups of people to natural hazards poses a serious challenge to development. The national efforts in disaster management in the country have not remained at government level. NGOs and CBOs are also taking active part in this. The experiment of ‘Cyclone Preparedness Programme’ (CPP) of Bangladesh is of its own kind; it involves community with full participation, increases the awareness of the community to have a practical approach of reducing risks and losses. This paper deals with the modus operandi of CPP and focuses on its approach to the cyclones. This approach is a unique, remarkable and successful experiment in this sub-continent, providing lots of lessons to be learnt in order to improve capabilities to meet the disaster challenges.