Disaster management: The role of JICA

The Japan International Co-operation Agency (JICA) operates in more than 150 countries across the world. JICA's projects in Bangladesh focuses on seven major sectors: Energy/Power, Health, Education, Governance, Rural Development, Disaster Management, and Transportation. 
In the area of disaster management, JICA's operations consist of three main pillars - floods, cyclones and earthquake preparedness, and risk reduction, according to Naokee Matsumura, Country Programme Coordinator of JICA  Bangladesh's Disaster Management division. 
"JICA has collaborated with Bangladesh Meteorological Department by installing Japanese radars in Dhaka, Moulvibazar, Cox's Bazar, Rangpur, which are to be used for weather forecasting and detection of imminent calamities, 72 hours prior to their emergence within the south-eastern coastal belt.  A 15-million-dollar budget has been allocated for the construction of submergible embankments to protect the people of the Haor regions from flash floods during monsoon which cause severe water-logging and hamper agricultural activities," Naokee elaborated.
In response to the researcher's query on existing earthquake preparedness projects of JICA, Naokee mentioned the Urban Safety Project that is currently underway. Japanese 'retro-fitting' technology in buildings will be introduced to ensure earthquake-resistant infrastructure. The technology has already been replicated by Tejgaon Fire Service Unit and a readymade garments factory in Savar. 
When asked to pinpoint the level of Bangladesh's earthquake preparedness, Naokee elaborated Japan's  three-tier model of post-earthquake response - self-defence, community defence and public defence, which is a combination of individual awareness, collective consciousness and government action. Where people in Japan have adapted their lifestyles with tectonic movements and tremors of high magnitude, Bangladesh is still a toddler in earthquake risk reduction. High population densities, unplanned urbanisation and a disregard for the National Building Code have escalated the potential threat of immeasurable devastation in case of a big earthqauke. Road and alleys are constricted, which means that relief and emergency service providers will have difficulty in manoeuvring their transport, after a disaster. 
There are around 200 thousand to 300 thousand buildings in Dhaka city and an attempt to make all of them earthquake-resistant will take a lot of time and money. Instead, contingency measures like immediate self-defence are necessary to mitigate casualty.  An 'emergency survival kit' for every individual which will sustain for 72 hours after an earthquake strikes is a very apt measure that Bangladesh may borrow from Japan, Naokee suggested.
According to him, "One of the fundamental underlying impediments that we previously faced when it came to 'technology transfer' was the poor infrastructure in Bangladesh and the dearth of social overhead capital, which did not permit the optimum utilisation of advanced technology imported from Japan. However, by introducing training programmes by investing in human resource development, we ensured that the technology could be effectively used by capable, competent and skilled manpower."
Meanwhile, the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015-2030 was adopted by the UN in March 2015.  This is a non-binding and voluntary pact signed by countries. This shifts the focus from disaster management to disaster risk reduction, by uniting the government with other public and private stakeholders. 
Inclusion of disaster management in secondary and higher secondary level textbooks has become mandatory by the 2011  Standing Order on Disaster (SOD). 
A look at the legal framework gives us hope, for there are ample laws, statutes and policies addressing disaster management, like the Disaster Management Act 2010, Standing Order on Disaster (SOD), National Policy on Disaster Management, to name a few. 
But Naokee sounds a note of caution: "The biggest hurdle that most developing countries face while implementing relevant laws is the absence of proper monitoring and evaluation." 
As Bangladesh finds itself at the forefront of climate change disasters today, we can no longer ignore the calls of the unseen future. Echoing the motto for recently observed 'International Disaster Risk Reduction Day 2016', we must 'Live to Tell', for the fate of our progeny lies in our hands. 
The writer is BSS (Hons), Department of Development Studies, University of Dhaka.
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