Why we should prepare for landslides ahead of time
The next monsoon is approaching, and nearly half a million people still live on the risky hilly terrain of the southeastern part of the country. It is a crucial time to update disaster preparedness and contingency policies with the core ideas of anticipatory action
Bangladesh is a country prone to a number of natural disasters. It is affected by numerous disasters such as cyclones, floods, droughts, earthquakes, landslides, lightning strikes, and river erosion, because of its unique hydrological and geomorphological realities.
Located at the bottom of the GBM (the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna) basin and bounded by the Bay of Bengal to its south, the country is highly susceptible to multiple hazards.
To reduce death tolls and economic loss, the Bangladesh government must evolve from reactive humanitarian disaster management approaches to anticipatory action.
Due to our vulnerable socio-economic condition, these disasters lead to the loss of lives, damage to infrastructure, and adverse impacts on the livelihoods of the people. According to the Global Climate Risk Index 2021, Bangladesh is ranked the seventh most extreme disaster-vulnerable country, having already lost almost US$15 billion in the last two decades. Alongside human-induced hazards, climate change and unplanned urbanisation worsen the situation.
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Landslides have become a recent phenomenon in the southeastern part of Bangladesh. Landslides occur in hilly terrain regions of the country due to torrential monsoon rainfall between June and September, as well as anthropogenic activities across the slopes.
This disaster was less noticeable in the region until June 2007, when a devastating incident in Chattogram took 129 lives. In 2012, landslides affected ten districts in the northern and southeastern parts, killing 139 people. In 2015, floods and landslides killed 19 people and caused further displacement.
The maximum number of deaths was reported in 2017 when massive landslides triggered by extreme rainfall in Rangamati, Bandarban, and Chattogram claimed 176 lives.
A study showed that from 2000 to 2022, landslides in Bangladesh caused 727 deaths, including 54 children, and 1,017 injuries. Historical records of landslide events reveal that an average of 19 landslides occur annually in the country, with an increase of 4% each year. Thus, this year there is an optimal chance for such a hazard to occur due to natural factors and human activities, between June and September.
Bangladesh has made a strong commitment to the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction (2015-2030), Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and other international agreements and charters to reduce multi-hazard disaster risk and vulnerability. To respond to multi-hazard disasters, the government of Bangladesh enacted the "Disaster Management Act 2012" and promulgated a wide range of policies, orders, and strategies.
However, the country still ranks sixth out of 89 countries in terms of the number of people exposed to multiple hazards, with 10% of GDP exposed to disasters per year—the highest in the world. The existing disaster management system of Bangladesh is more reactive than anticipatory.
Globally, it has been proven that every $1 invested in early action saves $7 in response, which enhances disaster preparedness for effective response and "Build Back Better" in recovery, rehabilitation, and reconstruction. To reduce the number of deaths, missing persons, and persons affected by disasters, as well as direct economic loss in relation to global GDP, anticipatory action is now a game changer.
Anticipatory Action (AA) involves acting ahead of a predicted hazard to prevent or reduce its impacts on communities before they fully unfold. AA leverages a window of opportunity between when an early warning or forecast is available and a full-blown crisis, using pre-positioned resources and plans to take protective action for communities.
Anticipatory action serves as a bridge between disaster risk reduction, preparedness, and crisis response, saving lives and livelihoods, mitigating suffering, improving the effectiveness of response and recovery, and importantly, better preserving the dignity of communities.
Bangladesh confronts an escalating vulnerability to natural disasters exacerbated by climate change. Despite strides in mitigating floods and cyclones through disaster preparedness (DP) and anticipatory action (AA), cascading hazards like landslides remain critical threats. An effective AA mechanism for cascading hazards is absent. Landslide-induced fatalities in the southeastern part are now becoming a recurrent hazard and are classified as an emergent national threat.
Experts in the field of disaster risk reduction state that landslides are not only caused by natural factors, but are also highly associated with anthropogenic factors such as indiscriminate hill cutting, destruction of hill forests, environmental degradation, unsustainable urbanisation, cultural barriers, and a lack of good governance.
To mitigate the highest level of socio-economic loss from landslides, anticipatory action can play a pivotal role. Anticipatory Action establishes early warning dissemination, which will take actions to mitigate the humanitarian impact on children and communities through the preparedness of multiple stakeholders, including governments.
By using an early warning system, communities, especially governments, can see the window of opportunity to act ahead of crises and respond early to disasters.
AA also provides forecast-based action through which authorities can move inhabitants from hills to safe shelters before torrential rainfall occurs.
To build resilience, AA focuses on community-based disaster preparedness systems, which act from prior disaster to post-shock recovery. AA engages the community to build capacity on early warning systems and improve local management capability for infrastructure maintenance and operations, as well as contribute strategically to national policies.
The next monsoon is approaching, and nearly half a million people still live on the risky hilly terrain of the southeastern part of the country. It is a crucial time to update disaster preparedness and contingency policies with the core ideas of anticipatory action.
AA maintains and strengthens people-centred, multi-hazard, multisectoral forecasting and early warning systems, disaster risk and emergency communications mechanisms, and hazard-monitoring technologies through a participatory process.
Catastrophic disasters in Bangladesh have shown how disaster risk and socio-economics are closely interlinked. To reduce death tolls and economic loss, the Bangladesh government must evolve from reactive humanitarian disaster management approaches to anticipatory action.
Mohammad Abu Toyab is a Development Professional working at Save the Children International. Email: subalternsweblog@gmail.com
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard
