Author(s): Anwarul Abedin; Umma Habiba; Rezaur Rahman; Rajib Shaw; Munsur Rahman
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Abstract: The haor areas of Bangladesh regularly face flash floods because of heavy downpour in the Meghalaya and Asham regions. It happens in this area by sudden flow of water from the surrounding hills during the period of late March to May and causes significant losses of agriculture. Since the paddy fields in hoar area remain under water for half of the year and in dry season, the farmers can only grow paddy to feed them for the whole year. In2017, early flash causes a havoc damage to standing boro crop, fish stock and live stock in six districts of haor areas. Among them, Sunamganj district is badly affected by flash flood where 113,000 hectares of cultivated land are submerged out of 166,000 hectares. As, ICT plays an increasing role in different stages of flood disaster management including forecasting and prediction, early warning, mitigation, response and recovery as well as rehabilitation; therefore, a study has been carried out at Sunamgonj district to identify the exercises and gap of ICT at different stages of the recent flash flood management. This study utilized semi-structured questionnaire, FGD and KI to deploy the objectives. The results highlights that a good ICT infrastructure is in place in Bangladesh, however, there is yet no comprehensive well-defined system in the country to designate the institutions and their responsibilities for emergency communication in a post-disaster situation. In conclusion, this study recommended some policy options to harmonize the application ICT at various levels for flash flood management in haor areas of Bangladesh.
Year: 2018