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Meeting on Preparedness Today

Bangladesh at high risk of major earthquake, tsunami

Say experts

Staff Correspondent
With Bangladesh exposed to high risk of being hit by a major earthquake or tsunami, a meeting of experts and officials of related ministries and organisations will be held today to assess the country's preparedness as well as limitations in tackling a major natural disaster.
According to officials of food and disaster management ministry the meeting has been called at the ministry in the morning following repeated earthquakes that jolted the country last month and the latest earthquakes and tsunamis around the world.
"We will sit together to evaluate our preparation to face a moderate to strong earthquake in terms of carrying out rescue and rehabilitation operations,” said ASM Maksud Kamal, national
expert on earthquake and tsunami preparedness under Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP).
Experts from geology department of Dhaka University. Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and city planners would attend the meeting to give their opinions.
Officials of Fire Service and Civil Defence and Armed Forces Division will also attend the meeting.
Ministers and officials of different ministries, including health and family welfare, local government and rural development, public works, communications and home affairs have also been requested to attend the meeting as they have important role to play in tackling a disaster.
"We need to review our preparations in case of a major
earthquake," Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzaque told The Daily Star yesterday referring to repeated earthquakes in the country and elsewhere in the world.
He said the government has taken recently a number of steps, including creating volunteers, building awareness and purchasing modern equipment to face an earthquake.
“A training programme is being launched across the country to create a total of 62,000 volunteers." said Razzaque, adding that the government has allocated Tk 70 crore to buy equipment like cranes and laser cameras.
“We have already purchased some equipment with Tk 40 crore while more are under process," he added.
The minister said efforts are on to build awareness and preparedness in every seg-
ment of the community including schools and colleges.
Earlier, the experts laid emphasis on massive coordinated efforts under a longterm plan to reduce possible damages by a moderate earthquake, pointing to the coun try's inability to tackle even minor disasters like building collapse or fire incident.
They said focus should be given to rescue and rehabilitation operation under a master plan.
According to experts, Bangladesh is likely to be hit by a moderate to strong earthquake resulting in widespread damage to life and property.
There is also a risk of tsunami as four active sources of earthquake in the Bay of Bengal can generate tremors with a magnitude of over 7 on the Richter scale affecting the country seriously.