Vulnerability Comparision
6. The Broken Bridge between Policy Guideline and Practices
The discourse of disaster management has undergone significant changes in recent decades and their effects have been profoundly felt in the developing world, particularly in terms of reduction in the loss of human lives (Haque and Uddin, n.d). It is being evident that, while most of the world was still grappling with the relief approach, disaster management strategy of Bangladesh has gone through a paradigm shift from relief and rehabilitation to disaster preparedness measures. The Government of Bangladesh has already established a multilayered institutional mechanism for disaster management, with formal recognition of the role of various stakeholders but even with the presence of some strengths, such as long experience in disaster response and recovery, the people‟s resilience, and donor support, the current disaster management strategies of Bangladesh suffer from a host of policy and institutional weaknesses (Khan and Rahman, 2007).
Through the NGO workshop held in BUET it was being found that, though NGO/CBO representatives were supposed to be included in the disaster management committees at different levels according to the national plan for disaster management of Bangladesh, but in most cases they are either not yet formed or non-functional, or they function only in times of crises. Same thing has been stated by Khan and Rahman, 2007 and again according to their study no regular meeting of any committee from top to bottom takes place except after a large-scale disaster. Furthermore, it has been found that, there is no representative from the NGOs/CBOs, the private sector, academia or the media in the highest-level National Disaster Management Committees (NDMCs).
Moreover, One of NGO representatives at the workshop said that, at the field level it is being experienced that, the alignment between GOs and NGOs is not harmonious.
Moreover, in the context of Bangladesh, it is evident that, the Local Governments (LGs) or Local Disaster Management Committees (LDMCs) have no autonomy either in decision- making or financial matters. The center strictly controls the LGs as kind of a „„vote bank‟‟
forthe party in power (Khan and Rahman, 2007). According to the NGO representative, in such cases LDMCs are just the shadow of the central government where NGOs and their activities are not well accepted. Besides, an academician from Dhaka University who is involved in disaster management studies of Bangladesh for long criticized about the Standing Orders of Disaster (SOD) of Bangladesh as although it covers instructions for almost all the government agencies but they do not cover the roles and activities of NGOs and CBOs. On the other hand, NGOs are actively involved in disaster management of Bangladesh and they frequently arrange public education campaigns and training programs for personnel involved in disaster management from national down to the union or community level (Khan and Rahman, 2007). But, as there is no proper documentation is available for such activities of NGOs and this is one of the main reasons that importance of NGOs involvement in disaster management is still resided in the shadow, this was one of the major issues raised by almost all the NGO representatives who were present in the workshop. In addition, a major loophole in the central system appears to be the absence of documentation and public disclosure of information, related particularly to internal resource mobilization and allocation for disaster management though the larger population actively participates in the relief and rehabilitation work individually or collectively through CBOs/NGOs (Khan and Rahman, 2007). Again, is was being found through the discussion with NGO representatives that, the information provided by the government officials regarding post disaster review are not specific rather it is too vague and it is really difficult to review and document the post disaster activities as the format is very lengthy and not straightforwardly comprehensible to local people.
In addition, one of the NGO representatives at the workshop stated that, although NGOs‟
involvement has been indicated in the national disaster management but no NGOs representatives were included in the formulation of the policy. Therefore, there is always a huge confusion and gaps between the policy guideline for NGOs and in field practices.
Moreover, it was also being raised in the workshop that, NGOs do not have total autonomy, since the release of foreign funds has to be approved by the NGO Affairs Bureau, an agency
under the Prime Minister‟s Office. Therefore, the government has a tendency to control NGO activities and guide them towards the regime‟s political ends, rather than accept them as partners of a collective decision-making process. Besides, it appears that the government not yet ready to share resources or decision-making with the NGOs/ CBOs (Khan and Rahman, 2007). Furthermore, it was being come out through the discussion with NGOs that the bottom to top approach in disaster management is more realistic to achieve long term benefit for sustainable development activities and it is necessary to empower community to take their responsibility.
7. Conclusion
Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) is at the very core of development of a country and NGOs are recognized as one of the prominent actors of disaster risk reduction and management around the world because of their quick response and mentionable efficiency. In spite of contributing with great effort in disaster management of Bangladesh, NGOs are getting less acknowledgment than what they really deserve as there is no proper documentation of their activities. Furthermore, the effort and activities of local NGOs get even less recognition whereas they are the only prompt actors and facilitators during and after any disastrous situation of the country. However, NGOs are still conducting various disaster management activities at different level of Bangladesh and their efforts are sometimes exemplary and worth following. Therefore, an effective partnership between government agencies of disaster management and NGOs are necessary to build and there must be a bridge to transfer the knowledge and experiences of both of these organizations for sustainable disaster management of the country. The extent of NGOs activities needed to be well defined by the government agencies after undertaking an appropriate academic evaluation of NGOs field based practices. Furthermore, NGO representatives must be included at the very initial moments of the policy formulation otherwise NGO may gradually lose their volunteerism mentality, which is of course not acceptable for sustainable disaster management of a country like Bangladesh. Therefore, it is necessary to recognize NGOs roles in disaster management with proper documentation and to boost up their volunteerism attitude they are needed to be included actively at policy level of the country. To conclude it can be said that, it is necessary to construct a bridge between effective disaster management and development actions to ensure the sustainable development of a disaster prone country like Bangladesh.
References
[1] Bass S, Dalal-Clayton B, & Pretty J (1995) Participation in strategies for sustainable development. London: IIED.
[2] Benson C, Twigg J, & Myers M (2001) NGO initiatives in risk reduction: an overview. Disasters,25(3), 199-215.
[3] Disaster Report, 2013. Department of Disaster Management, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief,
Government of the People‟s Republic of Bangladesh
[4] Disaster Risk Reduction: A Preliminary Review of Initiatives and Progress Made, Background Paper for a
Consultative Meeting on A “Global Network of NGOs for Community Resilience to Disasters”. October,
2006. International Strategy for Disaster Management (ISDR)
[5] Joseph P (2006) Managing flooding in Bangladesh: the importance of NGOs
[6] Haque C E, & Uddin M S (2013) Disaster Management Discourse in Bangladesh: A Shift from Post-Event Response to the Preparedness and Mitigation Approach Through Institutional Partnerships. INTECH OpenAccess Publisher. DOI: 10.5772/54973 [7] Hossain M A (n.d) Community Participation in Disaster Management: Role of
Social Work to Enhance Participation. Sociology,159, 171.
[8] Islam M R, & Morgan W J (2012) Non-governmental organizations in Bangladesh:
their contribution to social capital development and community empowerment.
Community Development Journal,47(3), 369-385. DOI: 10.1093/cdj/bsr024
[9] Khan M R & Rahman M A (2007) Partnership approach to disaster management in Bangladesh: a critical policy assessment. Natural Hazards,41(2), 359-378. DOI- 10.1007/s11069-006-9040-y
[10] Sarkar M A (2009). Assessing the efforts of NGOs in cyclone disaster management in Bangladesh.
[11] Slaymaker T, Christiansen K, & Hemming I (2005) Community-based approaches and service delivery: Issues and options in difficult environments and partnerships. Unpublished report by the Overseas Development Institute.
[12] Sukhi T J (2014). NGO’s role in Cyclone Disaster management of Bangladesh:
focusing cyclone Sidr in
Patuakhali (Doctoral dissertation).
Title: Sanitation System and Health: A Case Study at Teghori-Kalagachi Mauza in Chuadanga Sadar Upazila.
Md. Easin Ali, Professor Sheikh Md. Monzural Huq 1. Introduction
Health and sanitation are connected with each other. Each year thousands of people die from various types of infectious diseases. These diseases are caused by poor sanitation and hygiene practices. The disease that spread more in rural areas of Bangladesh are diarrhoea, dysentery, jaundice, cholera, hook worm, chicken typhoid and so on. A study observed that the health related economic loss due to inadequate sanitation was 84% of the total economic impacts or equivalent to 5.3% of Gross Domestic product (GDP) of Bangladesh (WSP, 2012). Another study in Bangladesh suggests that improved water and sanitation facilities actually reduce diarrhoea by 99%, dysentery by 90%, intestinal worms by 51% (NHPS, 2012). Washing hand with soap or simply rinsing hands without soap prior to preparation of food can reduce occurrence of diarrhoea in children (NHPS, 2012). This indicates that sanitation and hygiene practices are major components of environmental health. To keep the environment healthy for human habitation and health purposes, sanitation is needed because sanitation system is related to whole way of life. Still now people of the country are not aware about sanitation and hygiene practices. In Bangladesh, about 33% of the people have hygienic latrines (Online Research, 2010 Every 90 seconds a child dies from a water- related disease (Water Organization, 2015). About .1.2 million people of the country need access to clean water supply and 3 million people are without sanitation facilities (Online Research, 2010). To avoid this problem different plan are taken into account and attempts has been made to develop sanitation system. It is estimated that with a population of 149 million only 10% of the population in Bangladesh practices Open Defecation (Dietvorst and Gift, 2014). Only 56% of the population estimated to have had access to adequate sanitation facilities in 2010 (Wikipedia, 2012). A new approach to improve sanitation coverage in rural area such as, community-led total sanitation concept has been first introduced in Bangladesh (Wikipedia, 2012).
Though the progresses in sanitation and hygiene practices have been made substantially, the coverage is not satisfactory. In the remote areas the progress is significantly low. The study area of this study is one of the backward regions of the country and due this fact this study was carried to examine the health, hygiene and sanitation practices.
1.1 Aim and Objectives
The main aim of this research is to identify the sanitation and hygiene practices and their impacts on health at Teghori-Kalagachi Mauza in Chuadanga Sadar Upazila. The study was carried out in 2015 and the aim is to examine the relationships between sanitation system, hygiene practice and health.
The objectives of the study are-
a)To examine the present sanitation system hygiene practices in the study area;
b)To identify the health status of the people of the study area from 2010 to 2015;
c) To find out the common health problems those are directly or indirectly related to the use of water and sanitation;
d)To put forward recommendations in this respect.