Ponders on Bangladesh's priorities on crisis and disaster management strategies

by Sayed Javed Ahmad
February 3, 2010

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/482/ponders-on-bangladeshs-priorities-on-crisis

Bangladesh should be seriously concerned as being a possible target for a Haiti like quake disaster or even worse. Not too long ago our major local newspapers ran headlines indicating that possibility. Is our government planning for a prevention or recovery mechanism?

Our Bangladesh Bank (BB) is predicting how Bangladesh will become a 'middle-income country' within next few years provided the growth remains the way it is. But what if the growth takes a reverse turn? In fact, it is taking a negative turn already when we find our BB worrying about dwindling of profits due to recession.

At a time like this, we also find ourselves considering establishment of a Commodity Exchange Market in the country to allow commodity trades by public. But is it a good idea?

In a country where the government has no clue and control over the supply chain management (SCM) on our basic food supply, does not have the ability to control reckless inflation, what gives them the courage and hope that they would be able to control the commodity market if it is opened up for public manipulations? Our Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is way too busy to control the existing share market manipulations and enough risk factors are showing up in that horizon as well and many predicting a crash.

Our BB revealed that the bank has been shying away from foreign investments due to instability of the US dollar. If that is the case then they should also take measures in judging whether to go for Euro as an alternative currency as Euro too is unstable as the poor members (take Greece for instance) are struggling with their economies. In the worst case scenario, the member states may come out of European Union (EU) and reestablish their own and old currencies. If and when that happens, Euro too would face a similar fate like the USD. Probably for that reason Russia is converting part of their foreign reserves into Canadian and Australian dollars, not Euro or British pounds. Considering the situation of the global economy, it is probably better for Bangladesh to focus locally with diversified foreign currency reserves instead of concentrating one just one.

Janata Bank has declared that part of their fund will be used to provide interest free loans to poor farmers as an activity of bank's corporate social responsibility (CSR), which is definitely an important and timely decision. All our banks should follow the same footsteps to allocate part of their project funding for interest free loans to small and medium enterprises (SME) engaged in agro projects. Since the global economy is in turmoil, in order to minimize crisis and disaster we need to think in "nationalistic" terms instead of "global". It is not a time to focus on "interest based earnings"; instead we should begin to consider venturing on "profit sharing" motives – a concept that is practiced at the Islamic Banks.

Our emphasis now should be on agriculture and farming to tackle the coming global food shortage. Because if we do not have enough food supply to feed all then our foreign currency reserves will get used up in no time importing food at high prices.

It is good that the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is showing interest in setting up atomic technology based cold storages to preserve food in the country. Our government should welcome this idea without a second thought as our existing cold storage facilities are not adequate to hold and preserve food for a longer period of time, nor are they up to the par in effectiveness.

Dredging and cleaning up of our rivers should continue on full force as per schedule ensuring natural flow of river waters. Ponds that have been filled up for urbanization should be rescued and revived for fishing and hatchery projects. Re-investment is poultry should again be a priority. Instead of killing the sick birds, we should consider quarantining them for treatments by bird doctors for a possible recovery. We should move the fish from poisoned ponds and waters to cleaner ponds in a gradual process instead of just killing them all if they are not dead already.

Keeping good relationship with the neighboring countries is a must to help one another at the time of crisis and disasters. All attempts of mutual cooperation should be based on mutual benefits with an option to re-negotiate if and when needed until perfection on a deal is reached.

We must not forget that our Dhaka city is sitting on a surface with hollow underground. That hollow has been created mainly due to lowering of water level; which means, any major earth quake may cause the entire city to get swallowed underground leaving no scope for recovery. Therefore, whatever recovery plans we take it must be focused and concentrated outside the Dhaka area, not within. Because, if we plan our disaster or crisis management options with the city limits, chances are it will get swallowed up along with the city when the actual disaster will strike. Not just Dhaka, Chittagong too will be in shambles. Therefore, Comilla could be a better location for developing disaster recovery centers from where the logistics could be dispatched efficiently at the time of crisis. Similarly, some other locations could also be selected in order to cover other parts of the country applying the same logic and principle.

With our limited knowledge and abilities what we can really do is try our best to minimize the casualties with some preparation from our end, so that we could act with our best abilities when the crisis will befall on us. Let us hope and pray that it does not happen to us as it happened to the Haitians. But then again we need to ask ourselves if we have the clean heart and soul to make a serious appeal to our one and only God Almighty Allah. Do we have the level of faith to reach our prayer to Him? If not, then we need to look into that matter first before doing anything else. We may not get the opportunity to pray when we are already in the dark hole loaded with pressure of debris – dead.

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