Reducing Climate Hazards of Sundarbans Community

Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change, as well as one of the most disaster-prone countries. Bangladesh’s flat topography, low-lying and climatic features, combined with its population density and socio-economic environment, make it highly susceptible to many natural hazards, including floods, droughts, cyclones and earthquakes. This is said that “A person living in the region riskier than those in Africa and in Europe or North America”.

The Sundarbans (world’s single largest mangrove forest and UNESCO World Heritage Site) is situated in a region prone to a high incidence of disastrous events. Over the past two centuries the coastal areas and offshore islands of Bangladesh, which the majority of the Sundarbans belong to, have been affected by more than 35 severe cyclonesand storm surges.

Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) is a nonprofit, non-political community-based development organization which has been working on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) activities in the Sundarbans region since 2016. BEDS has established a “Cyclone Shelter and Training Center” adjacent to the Sundarbans mangrove forest. BEDS has formed a Village Disaster Management Committee (VDMC) and provided CMDRR training to the committee members as well as established an emergency fund for the villagers.

In recent days BEDS has been conducting a research on the capacity of the Union Disaster Management Committee (UDMC) as it is the lowest tier of the government to work on disaster management. We have done Key Informant Interview (KII) targeting community leaders to assess the knowledge of disaster preparedness of the UDMC members of Shyamnagar, Satkhira. Shyamnagar sub district has 12 union parishads. We randomly visited 4 Union Parishards those are close to Sundarbans mangrove forest. We have done the KII taking proper health and safety measures.

BEDS is trying heart and soul to mitigate the disaster risks of coastal vulnerable people. Recently BEDS is trying to raise funds through the GlobalGiving platform for the project entitled “Reducing Disaster Risks of the Sundarbans Coastal People”. 

 We are extremely grateful to our donors for their continuous support. We would like to request all our donors to start monthly recurring donations for our project.