ICT to Mitigate Disaster Risks in Bangladesh – Schools of Thought

ICT to Mitigate Disaster Risks in Bangladesh – Schools of Thought

Faizul Khan Tanim looks into the possibilities of a Digital Bangladesh as opposed Disasters in Bangladesh

Natural disaster prone Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to cyclone, draught, tsunami, landslide, earthquake, arsenic contamination, salinity intrusion, erosion and of course floods. According to UN studies, the country is the most risky of being affected by tropical cyclones and sixth in the global vulnerability ranking caused by flooding. A study by the intergovernmental panel on climate change (IPCC) shows that by 2050, one in every seven persons (approximate population now is 158,570,535) in Bangladesh will be displaced by climate change. 32 per cent of total Bangladesh can be considered as coastal regions and nearly 39 percentage (and with a population growth of 1.3 per cent, by 2020, it will be 44 per cent) of the total population lives in such places.

According to the present government's election mandate, a Digital Bangladesh is the topmost priority. And accordingly, scholars believe that an effective information and communication technology (ICT) policy is one of the solutions to not only realise it's digital dream but to fight natural disasters and accomplish the millennium development goals (MDGs) and more.

However, ICT scholars from the country claim that this is one of the biggest 'cash cow' sectors of the country fetching large amounts of foreign aids/funds but the development is too slow and in some places, not at all as favourable as it ought to be.

Speaking to The Independent Dr Md Mahfuz Ashraf, lecturer at the department of management information systems (MIS), Faculty of Business Studies, University of Dhaka, said: “At present, there is no institutional approach to cater to this burning issue of disaster management. Interestingly, a project of SMS-based alarm system was started from the ministry of Food and Disaster Management in recent years with the completion of its architectural design but the project was never implemented due to unavailability of funds. There is not yet any action-based project to combat disaster risks”.

So, how can ICT help in combating disaster risks? With the advent of ICT, we can find a wide range of technology based options starting from mobile phone communications, real time high speed wireless Internet, radio (AM and low power FM), geographic information system (GIS) and personal computers - all are encompassed in ICT.

ICT can offer a wide range of tools and software for facing the challenges created by natural disasters. These tools are being used to gather, store and analyse data related to disasters, not only to be used in post-disaster situations, but also as a long-term measure to mitigate the risk of the disasters.

In the sector of disaster management, ICT in developing countries can help to better connect people, efficiently provide basic services like health care, education, food security, financial management and more.

ICT enabled applications have great potentials for helping to build a lower-carbon, knowledge-centric society, where it can be mostly utilized as a strategic tool for development.

Our neighbouring country India is successfully using ICT to its advantage. The India Disaster Resource Network (IDRN) is a nation-wide electronic inventory of essential and specialist resources for disaster response, covering specialist equipment, specialist manpower resources and critical supplies.

IDRN has been initiated by the country's ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) in collaboration with United Nations Development Program (UNDP) to systematically build the disaster resource inventory as an organized information system for collection and transmission of information about specific equipments, human expertise and critical supplies database from district level to state level to provide availability of resources for disaster response, so that disaster managers can mobilize the required resources within least response time.

According to an 'ICT for Development 2010 case study' published by UN's Asian and Pacific training centre for information communication technology for development (APCICT), in Bangladesh, the Disaster Management Information Centre is piloting early warning dissemination through cell broadcasting (CB) in two districts - Sirajganj (for floods) and Cox’s Bazaar (for cyclones). Agreements were signed with two mobile operators - Grameenphone and state-owned Teletalk - to send instant messages to their subscribers. Based on the result of the pilot, this technology will be expanded to other high risk areas of Bangladesh through the Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme or CDMP.

Although the above-mentioned information was published but ICT scholars in the country could not testify to the validity of such projects.

A paper on 'ICT and climate change in Bangladesh: challenges and priorities by AHM Bazlur Rahman, ceo of Bangladesh NGOs network for radio and communication (BNNRC) and Dr Faheem Hussain, assistant professor of Asian University for Women suggests that in combating the challenges of climate change, ICT has a multi-level role to play in global, regional and local contexts. Options like: video conferencing, tele-working, e-commerce, intelligent transport systems significantly reduces carbon footprint, hence result in a better way of living. In developed countries’ context, ICT enabled options powered by efficient applications and green practices can play a significant part in the mitigation process.

According to Dr Hussain, some of key challenges practitioners face in Bangladesh while integrating ICT with disaster management, especially climate change related issues are:

• There is lack of awareness about the dynamic potential of ICT to solve problems created by climate change at local, regional and national levels.

• Absence of ICT based infrastructure (e.g. internet backbone, electricity, community based information access points, etc.), especially in the vulnerable rural and coastal areas

• Scarcity of localized content and the absence of synergy with indigenous solutions against climate change.

Dr Ashraf also added that, “There is a US Navy disaster management alarm system and countries like China, India and Nepal are connected with that system. Sadly there is no participation from Bangladesh when we are in a climatic vulnerable situation. I personally think in our country's perspective, in place of SMS based services, the most effective ICT tool should be community radio based on specified dialect according to the specific regions and communities. Sri Lanka has become successful in using this tool to disseminate information to their fishermen community and this is high time that we start focusing.”

Meanwhile, centre for ICT policy research (CIPR) sources said that sufficient fund was not allocated and the demand by the National ICT Policy has been ignored in the proposed budget for installing the digital equipment and implementing other plans for building a Digital Bangladesh, which is hailed as the topmost priority of the present government.

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ICT in Disaster Management

by Shahidul K K Shuvra

The National ICT Policy of the country hasn’t ignored the role of Information and Communication Technologies in managing and mitigating impacts of disasters like floods, cyclones, earthquakes etc. Recommendations of the policy are to save the citizens from the disaster zones by using the info-tech innovatively. The policy is yet to be implemented thoroughly and according to the policy paper the government is supposed to spend 5 per cent ADP and 2 per cent of the revenue budget for jazzing up digital infrastructures and requirements of every sector.

Few organizations in the country based on Information Communication Technology for Development, ICT4D, are experimenting with the digital devices to alert the people about imminent disasters. Years ago while cyclone Sidr was claiming the lives of 5000 to 10000 people, the organisations tried to use ICTs in managing the disaster.

Recently ferocious hurricane Irene battered New York City with a potential devastation like Katrina's on New Orleans. Two weeks ago several states of US were reported to have suffered damage during the hurricane Irene. Till posting the article people of the affected areas are facing the consequences with the aftermath of massive flooding and thousands of households are yet to get power connection again.

Before the attack of Irene, to track its paths, Google had rolled out an online map to provide useful information about the status of the storm formation. The online map had carried on forecasts to upgrade people about the hurricane; it also informed about evacuation routes and which coastal areas were in the danger of facing the attack. The search engine has another web rescuing option named ‘Person Finder’ to locate and reunite victims of floods, earthquakes, storm etc.

Such hurricane attacks in the US increased urgency in chasing all kind of disasters with digital gadgets. We found the victims were looking for lost children and siblings on the Net. There are many online albums for missing children. Relatives were posting photos with particulars on the websites to locate their beloved persons.

Benefiting from telecommunication technology is not a new concept, but web-based applications used in rescuing Katrina victims were remarkable. Radio and TV have always played a role in informing costal people before the attacks. In 2005, after hurricane Katrina’s attack, it was said that the importance of keeping a radio had revived.

In 2010, the Water Satellite of Europe provided photos of the flood zones in Pakistan; satellite data have been frequently analysed to distribute relief goods. In response to Pakistan's flood, the world's satellite fleets were mobilised to provide space-borne information under the International Charter on Space and Disasters.

ITU, International Telecommunication Union, increased effort for the reconstruction of Haiti's telecommunications and ICT infrastructure after the earthquake of 12 January, 2010. For the sake of strengthening rescue operations, it assisted Haiti to re-establish basic communication links and coordinate search and rescue operations; the communication solutions range from satellite terminals and WiMAX broadband to a mobile base station for wireless communications.

Online data base system can be one of the solutions in distributing relief among the victims. Significantly, it will boost monitoring the distribution process by the elected people's representatives and consequently, misuse of funds and relief goods will be checked.

We know that mobile phones couldn’t spread to every corner of the country because all the mobile phone companies are backed by multinational companies; they are deeply involved in profit generation, so they wouldn’t dare to go to backward places for lack of subscribers and technology installation cost is too high in the coastal and hilly regions compared to those in a crowded flat city like Dhaka. Therefore, besides telecommunication regulations, a government should run a part of the telecommunication sector to connect the rural people even with subsidy.

Digital mapping is a must for a modern country. In a country that possesses up-to-date mapping of a region, a rescue worker would be able to locate a victim by simply using a palmtop and a mobile phone. Digital mapping is extremely useful in finding victims in a zone where an accident occurs. Whenever a mishap takes place, rescuers can identify the place of occurrence by clicking on a handheld device. Digital mapping is a useful tool in the search for scattered people after a disaster like cyclone, hurricane and flood.

Remote sensing has taken a new turn with the installation of satellite equipment, which allows observation from a distant location and produces images to analyse what is going on exactly. Images are taken from the surface of the Earth and the photos are projected on computer monitors for zoom in.

Still we are far off from the latest remote sensing facilities. The space equipment of the remote sensing organisation, Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation (SPARRSO), is not enough. It is associated with some satellite establishments of other countries and images from those satellites help them to carry out remote sensing operation.

A country, whether rich or not, needs donation and help from all over the world during a natural calamity. Other governments and international organisations can send donations to the victims, but general people normally face a hassle in donating money from other parts of the world; there is even a limitation in some particular countries about sending money instantly and directly. Bangladesh Bank has opened the gateway for online payment which will facilitate collecting donations and sending money to a victim directly.

More effectively IT and telecommunication experts of some developed countries could minimize some effects of disaster if they concentrated on digital device focused disaster management. Unfortunately these countries have developed IT sector for commercial use and making war technology; after the attack of 9/11 they have been developing cyber monitoring technology, which is built for cracking down on terrorists; not for dealing with calamities.

Still the government is uttering its election winning magic word ‘Digital Bangladesh’; according to the government, a lot of work is under way. But the last budget couldn’t allot significant money for IT, telecommunication sectors, as well as for the disaster management with the digital devices. According to the current ICT infrastructure of the country, especially in the costal belt, such digital rescue operation is a myth, away from the reality.

http://www.theindependentdigital.com/index.php?opt=view&page=33&date=2011-09-09