“I never preferred to migrate to the city, but the disaster, the poverty pushed me towards the city. But the city that saved me from starvation never gave peace.”- Yeasmin Begum (30) used to live at Miar Char village of Badaghat south union of Sumanganj district of Sylhet division. She migrated to Dhaka due to constant rain and upstream waters …
Bangladesh shines at Geneva meeting
Last week the Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) meeting was held in Geneva, Switzerland with more than 4,000 delegates from all over the world and many different stakeholders including government, UN agencies, private sector, civil society, women’s groups, indigenous peoples’ groups, youth groups, groups related to people with disabilities, and many others. I had been invited to …
Disaster management in Bangladesh: Reducing vulnerabilities
(Originally published here) Bangladesh experienced over 200 natural disasters since 1980, leaving a total death toll of approximately 200,000 people and causing economic loss worth nearly $17 billion. Every year, we incurred 1.8 percent of GDP loss due to natural disaster. It is estimated that 14 percent of our GDP is exposed to disasters. After the devastating cyclone of 1991, …