PROVATi3 - DDM Component

Introduction

A National level Inception Workshop on “Development of Local Flood Early Warning and Dissemination System” under PROVATi3 Project-DDM Component was held on October 30, 2021, at InterContinental Dhaka, Bangladesh. The Department of Disaster Management (DDM) is implementing this project, which is co-financed by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Government of Bangladesh. Regional Integrated Multi-Hazard Early Warning System collaborates as a technical partner on this project.
Minister Dr. Enamur Rahman, MP, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) was the chief guest, while Secretary Md. Mohsin presided over the program. This project will provide a solution for localized flood early warning information as part of subcomponent 2.3 of the PROVATi3 project. The flood warning system is intended to reduce losses caused by floods in flood-prone, low-lying portions of Bangladesh's northwestern region, where agricultural land is frequently devastated by floods during the monsoon season.
This initiative will seek to improve flood early warning and dissemination systems in northern Bangladesh’s three most flood-prone districts: Kurigram, Gaibandha, and Jamalpur for the next five years. Developing an effective dissemination system of flood forecast and early warning of FFWC for end-users is one of the primary objectives of this project. In addition, several decision support tools will be developed and integrated into the Government system to ensure sustainability.

Workshop guests and participants

Honorable State Minister Dr. Enamur Rahman, MP, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MoDMR) was present as the Chief Guest and Md. Mohsin, Secretary, MoDMR chaired the program. Govt officials from MoDRM, DDM, LGED, Representatives from IWFM-BUET, DU, IFAD, CARE Bangladesh, Islamic Relief Bangladesh, Concern Worldwide, IFRC, GRC attended the workshop. Raihanul Haque Khan, Country Program Lead RIMES; Nazmul Ahasan, Country IT Lead-RIMES, and other RIMES team members were present there.

Session 1: Inaugural Session

Director-General of DDM, Md. Atiqul Huq welcomed all the participants and convened the workshop. In his opening remarks, he extended a warm greeting to everyone in attendance and expressed his gratitude for their involvement in this inception workshop. Later he remained focused on the importance of the forum and its goal of disaster risk reduction. He begins by delivering an overview of the project's goal and action plan to the entire group of participants. He invited everyone to collaborate in order to bring the PROVATi3 Project to a successful conclusion.

Session 2: Presentation on Local Flood Early Warning and Dissemination Systems by RIMES

Nazmul Ahasan, Country IT Lead-RIMES, and Md. Faqrul Arefin, Program Manager, delivered a presentation explaining the project's comprehensive objectives as well as essential technical activities such as updating and validating the existing danger level, installing river gauges and land gauges, and creating a Localized Inundation Map. They stated that the vital support to the project activities would be to conduct an early warning system audit to identify areas for improvement and associated information needs at different levels of early warning knowledge dissemination from national to community level.

Session 3: Presentation from Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre

Md. Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan, Executive Engineer, Bangladesh Water Development Board, delivered an insightful presentation on flood management and the Flood Forecast Network of BWDB. Later he shared the role of Flood Forecast and Warning Center in Provati Project like Gauge to gauge correlation, Installation of new gauges in the project area, Involving the local water development board in setting up local gauges and integration with BWDB's Auto gauge Network.

Session 4: Open Discussion

Attendees took part in an open discussion on the“Development of Local Flood Early Warning and Dissemination System” and the Provati Project. Participants raised essential issues during the open- discussion and suggested ways to improve different aspects of the project. The key observations and recommendations are as follows
The Secretary of the MoDMR, Md. Mohsin was concerned about how early warning could be disseminated to the community discussing the impact of the recent flash floods from his own experience that occurred in four high-risk areas in Bangladesh. Executive Engineer Md. Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan emphasized the importance of radar sensors for this project, and RIMES Country Program Lead Raihanul Haque Khan supported, highlighting Nepal as an example of a fully automated system. Dr. Rabin Kumar Biswas inquired if flood plain level information could be integrated with Google.

Session 5: Conclusion of the workshop

Under subcomponent 2.3 of the PROVATi3 project, the Department of Disaster Management will provide a solution for localized flood early warning information dissemination. The warning system is expected to reduce losses caused by floods in the flood-prone, low-lying areas of the northwestern part of Bangladesh. The inception workshop served as a forum for open discussion and collaboration on local level flood warning and dissemination systems. The Chief Guest, Dr. Md. Enamur Rahman, MP, applauded the system of mobile messaging and automated technology mentioned in today's inaugural workshop sharing his recent flash floods experience in North Bengal. Md. Mohsin, Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, emphasized the importance of spreading flood warnings to the general public in easy-to-understand language. He expressed optimism about the success of the project, in collaboration with RIMES, IFAD and the Department of Disaster Management, for the successful implementation of the local early warning campaign. Md. Mohsin, Secretary, MoDMR showed gratitude to everyone for their insightful suggestions and constructive feedback. He concluded the session expressing his hope to implement the recommendations for enhancing forecast information generation and applications.

National Level Inception Workshop on "Development of Local Flood Early Warning and Dissemination System"