Flood is the single most natural hazard and climate-induced disaster that incurs huge losses for Bangladesh. Since 1954, seven major floods impacted around 3% to 5% loss to the country’s GDP. One of the main causes of such a loss is the ‘inadequate flood forecasting and warning system’. Over the years, it has been felt that the existing system needs to redefine the danger levels, inundation map up-gradation, area base forecasting, and integrated information addressed by risk, vulnerability, and hazards to make the country flood resilient.
NRP DDM is providing supports in developing a Dynamic Flood Risk Model that extracts the information of hazard from model results to support effective and accessible early warning and actions for reducing loss and damages. The model identifies the closest scenario from the FFWC warning and disseminates flood forecast messages through community and volunteerism approaches. By project intervention, a total of 1440 FPP volunteers capacitated on flood preparedness/warning message and they rendered response services during the floods 2020.
The government of Bangladesh has taken up this model for adaptation and institutionalization. However, the model is yet to be tested for its effective use in better preparedness. It is now targeted for the next monsoon flood to generate solid experience and learning. At the same time, a common platform at DDM/MoDMR also needs to be established to harness all the initiatives taken so far regarding flood warnings and their dissemination.
Total No# of Urban Community Volunteers is 1920.
