PROVATi3 - DDM Component

Introduction

A Regional level Inception Workshop on “Development of Local Flood Early Warning and Dissemination System” under PROVATi3 Project-DDM Component was held on February 13th, 2022 at Luis Park Village & Resort in Jamalpur, 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.
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. The inception workshop at Jamalpur served as a forum for open discussion and collaboration on local level flood warning and dissemination systems.
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

Netai Chandra Dey Sarker, Director (MIM) & Project Coordinator, Provati3 Project-DDM Component, Department of Disaster Management, presided over the programme as Chairperson. Additional Deputy Commissioner, Muhammad Muklesur Rahman, was present as a special guest. The detailed Participant list can be found in the Annex-1.

Session 1: Inaugural Session

Mohammad Hafizur Rahman, Deputy Project Coordinator, Provati3 Project-DDM Component, Department of Disaster Management welcomed all the participants and convened the meeting with the permission of Netai Chandra Dey Sarker, Director (MIM) & Project Coordinator, Provati3 Project-DDM Component, Department of Disaster Management. He extended a warm welcome to everyone and expressed his appreciation for their participation in this inception workshop. He begins by providing everyone with an overview of the project's goal and action plan. He explains how this project differs from previous projects in terms of traditional flood forecasting and how it will help the community. He briefly outlined the required contributions from Bangladesh Water Development Board and RIMES and how thy will be in collaboration with Department of Disaster Management in upcoming years of the project. At the end of his speech, he stated his hope in the proper implementation of this project and expected everyone’s cooperation.
The special guest, Muhammad Muklesur Rahman, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Gen.), Jamalpur, graced the open discussion session with his valuable recommendations. The ADC (General) drew attention to some of the most major issues facing the district of Jamalpur. He insisted that the Union Parishads should be notified with upcoming flood scenario in an early stage so that they can undertake timely actions in their locality. He presaged about the overlapping between NGOs and government projects and urged on an integrated and collaborative approach among the ongoing and upcoming projects. The ADC envisaged the possibility of discriminations during the flood periods among the stakeholders with different levels of vulnerability and suggested to deal with distressed people with more caution. He wished the project success and expressed the hope that the second phase would be implemented soon after the first.

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

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. He 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 Department of Disaster Management by DPC, PROVATi3

Md. Hafizur Rahman, Deputy Project Coordinator of PROVATi3, Department of Disaster Management delivered a presentation on DDM’s goals and visions on disaster management in Bangladesh. He briefly discussed the responsibilities in brief by the Department of Disaster Management during the disaster periods. Furthermore, he described how PROVATi3 is integrated and being carried out by DDM and its expected outcomes.

Session 4: Presentation from Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre

Sarder Udoy Raihan, Sub-Divisional Engineer, Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre, 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 5: Open Discussion

The invited attendees participated in an open discussion session in the regional inception workshop on the “Development of Local Flood Early Warning System” at Jamalpur. Mahmudul Hasan from CARE Bangladesh addressed that despite getting IVR messages, communities are not able to make the best use of the warning information because of the lack of awareness. Early warning messages need to be delivered to the district level officers (DDMC) too beside union and upazilas level so that the importance of early warning is recognized everywhere. He added that voice messages are required to be delivered to the volunteers working in upazilas and union levels so that they can disseminate the early warning messages to the grass root level. He also requested BWDB to take required measures to improve navigability in the Jamuna river so that the intensity of flood may reduce.
PIO from Islampur stated that the number of teachers, Imams, public representatives and media workers need to be increased who receive early warning. He added that the shelters that are used during disasters should be well prepared and particular directions about nearest flood shelters should be given in voice message. He also opined that digital boards should be set up at the public places like markets and haats. The PIO urged the local educational institutions to raise awareness among the local people.The secretary of Bahadurabad Upazila expressed his concern about the accuracy of provided forecasts. He proposed that an accurate forecast of 2 weeks in rural areas will help the local inhabitants to a great extent to save their lives and assets. The upazila engineer of Madarganj thinks that the main challenge lies within relaying the early warning to the remote char region people. As they are one of the most vulnerable groups, he pleaded that the automated voice messages must find them and make sure that they take proper early actions based on the forecast messages. The secretary of Kolabandha union informed the fact that the digital boards provided at the union parishad offices go unnoticed as people do not visit those places frequently. Instead, he proposed to set up the electronic digital boards at the crowded places like local markets to draw more peoples’ attention. At the same time, miking should be done via masjids and volunteer committees in the places where early warning dissemination is slower. The PIO of Melandaha upazila placed his suggestion about livestock management during the flood period. People should be informed of the locations of high grounds where they can keep their cattle safely until the flood is over. Local representatives must step up on this issue to notify local people and guide them accordingly before and during the disaster period. The representative from ESDO suggested that the important places and points of interests like haat-bazars should be utilized more beside digital methods to spread early warning information as not all the people do not go to schools or masjids. Again, he particularly advised to raise awareness on early warning among the vulnerable remote area people.

Session 6: Conclusion of the workshop

Netai Chandra Dey Sarker, the project coordinator of PROVATi3 and Director (MIM) kept his closing remarks focused on the importance of the forum and its goal of disaster risk reduction. He voiced his optimism about the project's successful implementation. As a result of his prior work in Bangladesh's flood-prone areas, he was able to share his substantial ideas and knowledge on a variety of projects. He summarized the entire workshop concisely and enlightened everyone about the gathered thoughts with his valuable remarks. He appreciated everyone for their insightful suggestions and constructive feedback and requested for a synchronized collaboration from the associated entities in order to bring the PROVATi3 Project to a successful conclusion.

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