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Having a disaster management law!

M Aslam Alam and Shantana R. Halder
GLOBALLY, Bangladesh is equally acknow-ledged as a country with high poverty and disaster vulnerability and as a good performer in disaster management. Bangladesh started its disaster management policy and institutional reform in midnineties but unfortunately did not gain much success in the policy front except the Standing Orders on Disaster (SOD) first issued in 1997. By 2010, SOD — the only government approved policy document the country had — did not carry much legal value in absence of an Act.
The passing of the Disaster Management Bill 2012 by the Parliament on September 12 brought to a successful end the almost twenty years' efforts of the government and civil society actors. Through this enactment, citizens need to become self-accountable to the disaster stricken people and the community. It has created a window of opportunities for people to become more empathetic to the disaster affected communities.
The objectives of the Act are to: reduce overall risks of disasters with appropriate risk reduction interventions; effectively implement response and recovery measures; provide emergency humanitarian assistance to the most vulnerable; strengthen institutional capacity for better coordination and targeting; and to establish a disaster management system capable of handling all hazards. The seventeen page Act is comprised of six chapters, 60 sections and one schedule.
Approach: The document promotes the all-hazard allrisk and all-sector approach and endorses the comprehensive disaster management model developed through a long trial and error basis that has earned global recognition. It puts equal emphasis on disaster risk reduction and emergency response management with greater focus on equitable and sustainable development.
Institutional arrangement: Disaster management is guided by the National Disaster Management Council headed by the Hon'ble Prime Minister. The existing Directorate of Relief and Rehabilitation will be transformed into the Department of Disaster Management with a more robust and wider role focusing comprehensive disaster management, and will be responsible for implementation of the National Disaster Management related policies and plans at all levels. The Disaster Management Bureau will get functionally merged with the Department and perform both the disaster risk reduction and emergency response management functions. A National Disaster Management Research and Training Institute will be created while a National Volunteer Corps will be established with the existing volunteers of Cyclone Preparedness Programme and urban volunteers by the
Having a disaster management law! Department of Fire Service and Civil Defence. The structure and defined roles and responsibilities of all the actors, including the disaster management committees and response coordination groups at all levels as defined in the revised SOD, have been further endorsed in the Act and will remain functional. Here the disaster management functions are divided into risk reduction and emergency response management categories. The proposed back and forth mechanism in resource allocation and decision making, once implemented, will ensure transparency and accountability in the system.
Disaster area declaration: In the Act, the president has been entrusted to use his own judgment and declare a disaster area upon receiving a proposal from the deputy commissioner and recommended by the National Disaster Response Coordination Group through an official gazette notification, which may remain valid up to 2 months without further notification. It kept provision for the government to task any government,
semi-government organisation and the committees created under the Act, and can engage any private organisation or individual if situation demands. The local authority can also use the private facilities and their services and pay as per the government rate. The president may give special authority to the deputy commissioner, including requisition of required private properties and services and to seek priority assistance from the law enforcing agencies. In acute emergencies the government may also deploy the armed forces.
Priority group: In the Act, priority has been given to the most vulnerable and disadvantaged disaster affected people including women and children, the elderly and people with disabilities to protect them with required safety net and risk reduction related assistance.
Information management and role of media: It has specific directives to use all possible information sources and check those with the concerned authorities before dissemination to the community. The government also can issue directives to any electronic and print media, telecommunication and cable network for dissemination of disaster management related information.
Funding: The government will establish two — one national and another district level — disaster management funds, with open contribution from government, donors and any other legal sources including personal contribution from the elites and rich people.
Offences and trials: The Bill provides for trial of any specified offences, such as, false accusation; baseless statements and claims; misuse of position; misappropriation of resources; creation of obstacles in delivering emergency services, creation of obstacles in water flow for personal gains -- like making illegal holes in the embankments; intentional price hike of essential items in the disaster stricken area; violation of government directives relevant to media and other groups, and failure of the government officers and staff to implement their mandated roles. The written petition of complaints has to go through deputy commissioner or his assignee to the court and the trial will apply the Code of Criminal Procedure, 1898 and the Mobile Court Act, 2009. Depending on the nature and gravity of offences the court may impose 6 months to 3 years of rigorous imprisonment and Tk.50,000 to Tk.5 lac fine. Claim resolution will follow the Code of Civil Procedure 1908.
Rewards and others: The Act has provision for rewarding individuals and organisations for their invaluable contribution and for paying special allowance to persons appointed full-time in post- disaster emergency management. The government may also sign agreements with foreign countries and international and regional bodies on disaster management related research, for exchange of information and use of space-based technologies.
Way forward: The Act will have a long lasting impact on disaster risk reduction and emergency response management. However, the following steps are necessary: firstly, reorganising the Department of Disaster Management on an urgent basis; secondly, formulating national disaster management policy; thirdly, establishing National Disaster Management Research and Training Institute; fourthly, establishing National Disaster Volunteers, etc.
The writers are Secretary, Disaster Management & Relief Division, Ministry of Food & Disaster Management, and Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist, CDMP, respectively.