Excerpt
Table of Content
00 Basic data
01 Project context
Project area table
02 Overall objective
Specific objective
03 Activities at a glance performed during the period
04 Report on Activities for the Period
05 Outcome
06 Organization (Development & change in the organization)
Capacity Enhancement
07 Forecast
Conclusion
Case study
Acronym/Glossary
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0. Basic data
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River erosion of CMDRR working area
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Crops of the farmer is threading by erosion
1. PROJECT CONTEXT:
There are 19 coastal districts in Bangladesh out of 64 districts. The entire coastal region is divided in to 10 Agro Ecological Zone. Barisal district, a coastal belt of Bangladesh, is situated in the Agro Ecological Zone no.10 of costal region. One of the disadvantage areas of Barisal district is Babuganj Upazilla where the Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction project is being implemented. This is the most vulnerable place to natural disaster while it is the most promising part of Bangladesh having very fertile agricultural land. In spite of hostility of disaster, Babuganj can play a vital role in the national advancement of Bangladesh through proper management, skill development of people, utility of natural assets, human resources.
Babuganj is a highly disaster prone area where 26 incidents of disaster namely 3 floods, 4 flash flood, 16 river erosion and 3 cyclones hit since 2000 and these disasters brought havoc for infracture, environment, education, health and economy. It must be noted that the life of the people of Babuganj was paralyzed due the destructive effect caused by devastating flood in August 2007, super cyclone Sidar in 2007 as well as Ayla in 2009.Thus the study of disaster of Babujanj indicates that the socio economic development of Babuganj was routinely interrupted due to the clutch of flood, cyclone and tidal surge. No development work was effective to develop the socio economic condition of the poorest people of the area due to unplanned activity and natural disaster.
Add to this, hazard risk and vulnerability with insufficient or no disaster mitigation program as such tramples upon whatever these extreme poor people can earn and gain through sheer labour and pushes them to the periphery. A sizeable portion of poor and extreme poor fell victim every year to river-bank erosion, being reduced to pauperism and shelter-less; Inundation of vast low-lying area during high tide and / or rainy season disrupts normal life affecting work opportunity, schooling, drinking water availability and sanitation.
Having analyzed the circumstances INDAB comprehended that there is no alternate but to develop the capacity of the society to cope with disastrous situation as society can hold ownership in its own resource and abode. It’s a mammoth task which entails durable participatory strategy. Keeping this in mind, INDAB effectively implemented a range of activity of CMDRR project at Babuganj form September 2009 to August 2012 with a view to reducing disaster risk and involving community in this regard. During the tenure of the project a social vitality emerged through the community people’s direct participation in project activities. The optimistic depiction that the project has brought about is the community’s warm reception of CMDRR concept. Now they firmly believe that it is their safe guard which can ensure their safety and improve the quality of living condition. As a result, community people took part in various activities of the project with enthusiasm which is a sign that CMDRR is on the right track to achieve sustainability. The following are the positive effect of the project:
- People are prepared to response and play the exact role during disaster and emergency as various project’s activities developed their skills and capacity. DRR is extensively practicing in disaster prone area.
- Through the project activities a working relationship between government officials at UP, Upazilla and District level has grown which has helped to grow the acceptability of CMDRR project and its sustainability
- A new dimension added to the project through the diffusion of CMDRR concept among local beneficiaries, local UP members
- The beneficiaries are able to assess their risk & vulnerability and prepare resource map with their effort and to show capacity to reduce disaster risk
-Different stakeholders of the project area like UP members, like minded NGOs, religious leaders, teachers, journalists, members of CS working as Change
Agent. Based on their participation and assistance as well as advice Local Level Contingency Plan was prepared
-Locally held workshop, simulation and CMDRR village committee meeting assisted growing leadership and developing capacity of the participants
- Still efforts are going on to let people know about Disaster Copping Mechanism (DCM) to disaster and Adaptation
- As women and children are staying in vulnerable position to disaster hazard in INDAB’s project area Babuganj, more emphasize was placed on women and children’s problem in disaster risk reduction management. Furthermore, women’s massive participation before, during and after disaster was ensured so that they can raise their own problem
- The students of primary school , teachers and members school managing body are still trying their utmost to disseminate knowledge of disaster risk reduction, the reason of disaster and the required steps during disaster among the people in the project area
- Being inspired on DRR of current CMDRR project, the people of neighboring Jahangir Nagar Union, who are also vulnerable to disaster, have already started exercising DRR and showed interest to be involved in CMDRR project.
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Economy, Political Situation & Local Administration
The economic condition of Babuganj is also dim where 40% people live below the poverty line. Agriculture is the backbone of economy though the production in agriculture sector is unsatisfactory because of following traditional method. They can’t cope with the latest technology in agriculture sector because lack of knowledge, orthodox view and unawareness. Unfortunately no fruitful effort was taken by the government to survive farmers with modern way of agriculture.
Good governance is the precondition for the development of a country but the existing political condition of Bangladesh is a bar to ensure good governance. Due to absence of good government and inefficiency of democratic institutions the whole country is deprived of benefits of development. According to Poverty Reduction Strategic Plan (PRSP) the bar towards poverty alleviation in Bangladesh is violation of human rights, corruption, absence of accountability, political influence, political turmoil, degradation of moral values and week governance.
The powerful local government is recurred to ensure development and alleviate poverty. However, it is absent is Bangladesh where local government is always manipulated by political influence and kept in feeble position. The Upazilla Chairman, the elected public representative of the local government, is not getting opportunity to play role smoothly due to no coordination among Upazilla Chairman, Member of Parliament and Upazilla Nirbahi Officer, the highest government official of an Upazilla. There is conflict to exercise power among them; as a result, local development activities are severely barred. On the other hand, there is a chairman and 12 members including 3 female members in each Union Parishad who are directly elected through ballot. There are 5 UPs in the project area and the most of the UP members are new but they are not influential to fulfill public demand as they limited power. On the other hand, people are unable to pay tax due to poverty; hence, these public representatives have to convince highly influential political leaders manage fund to run development activities. That’s why development activities in the root level are faint.
As Babuganj is far from the district town, no noticeable political influence is noticed though it is the political culture of Bangladesh that the ruling party always manipulates in each sector but in Babuganj the political influence is not acute that are prevalent in other areas of Bangladesh. This situation is conductive to development activities in Babuganj.If government shows prudence to run development activities; it will help gear up development activities.
Target Area
The geographical area of Babuganj is 164.88 square km, is a river basin area which stands on three eroding rivers namely, Shandha, Sugandha and Arielkha .The whole area is highly vulnerable to natural disaster due to its geographical location. A large number of people live in Charland (island situated in the midst of river) due to availability of livelihoods. 5000 families of 50 villages of 5 union of Babuganj are the direct beneficiaries of INDAB who always combat with disasters e.g., flood, river erosion, cyclones. Most of the people depend on agriculture and fishing. Unfortunately, the struggle to manage livelihood is a routine task of the people of this area due to unavailability of fish and long term presence of water in agricultural land.
Here is the brief socio economic picture of the people living in the project area:
- extreme poor families residing in villages vulnerable to river-bank erosion, cyclone flood, tidal surge, cold wave, drought, etc.,
- those living in low-lying area,
- families uprooted from their dwelling on account of river-bank erosion,
- extreme poor and the marginalized people including the Bede community surviving on fishing, and
- the area in Babuganj not covered by Government and NGO program
Table: Project Area
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