Disaster, Environment & Climate Change

In order to respond proactively to the increasing frequency and severity of natural disasters as well as other manifestations of climate change, BRAC’s Disaster, Environment and Climate Change programme is moving beyond relief and rehabilitation into institutionalised preparedness, risk reduction and management interventions as well as long term adaptation strategies.

Programme Description
Frequent natural disasters induced by climatic change adversely affect the lives and livelihoods of tens of millions of Bangladeshis and threaten to slow down, or even reverse the progress made so far in poverty alleviation. The Disaster, Environment and Climate Change (DECC) programme was established in 2008 as a consequence of lessons learnt while helping communities cope with the devastating effects of Cyclone Sidr, which struck in November 2007.

Programme Objectives
1.    To enhance BRAC’s institutional capacity to proactively respond to natural disasters.
2.    To build capacity at the community level to face naturaldisasters due to climate change.
3.    To establish predictive research capacity within BRAC.
4.    To facilitate information transfer and education of government policies and aid. 
5.    To respond to natural disasters in Bangladesh and other countries.

Our Approach
From inception BRAC has been quick to respond to natural disasters, reaching out with emergency relief and rehabilitation support. To be more effective, however, we must build up capacity to offer proactive responses – empowering communities to prepare for natural disasters and to train themselves to be the first responders when calamities strike. BRAC has to be ready with tools to help affected people move more quickly into recovery mode. Our approach therefore stresses the need to institutionalise disaster management and risk reduction through creation of (a) capacity (b) adaptation strategies and (c) linkages and knowledge generation.

Programme Components

We are strengthening a core team with knowledge and expertise to review relevant risks, calculate probabilities, prepare contingency plans and lay out specific procedures for disasters. This team will deliver training on hazards, risk reduction and responses and use local knowledge and draw on international experience, to prepare BRAC staff to respond to emergency situations so that more lives can be saved and losses mitigated. Surveys of disaster-prone areas will be used as tools for resource allocation and preparedness. The programme will also prepare itself to handle disasters in neighbouring countries and places where BRAC works. Adaptation strategies will be key to meeting the challenges of climate change.

Initiatives

Microclimatic Weather Stations
Five weather stations were set up in partnership with the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) and the Ministry of Environment and Forest to measure, record and ascertain microclimate variability. The data will be used to advise local farmers when best to grow seedlings, transplant cereal crops and plan secondary crop plantings. BMD has installed 14 stations in 22 agro-ecological zones; BRAC set up 3 with plans to cover the remaining zones.

Standard Operation Procedure
We are developing standard operation procedure (SOPs) toorganise and streamline BRAC’s rapid response when disasters strike. The procedure includes clear-cut operational instructions for field level workers and programme members. SOPs will enable us to respond quickly, in pre, during and post-disaster scenarios, as the trained staff and members will not have to wait for instructions to act. This is particularly important as disasters often disrupt communications.

Geographical Information System (GIS)
Our goal is to establish a fully operational GIS unit to facilitate spatial analysis-based research activities focusing on climate change and disaster management.

Partnering to Increase Our Institutional Capacity
The Humanitarian Future Programme based at King’s College in London is helping assess our internal long-term future humanitarian crisis management strategy.

Early Warning
DECC `has developed a situation room where one resource person has been appointed as Sector Specialist and a new design for a situation report has been developed which makes weather forecasting more accurate as well as easily interpretable.
Along with the flood and cyclone forecasting DECC is now disseminating information about cold wave, heat waves, heavy rain falls and other climatic phenomena to the BRAC beneficiary groups so that they can take necessary steps accordingly.

Waste Management
Waste management plant project will start on a pilot basis inTongi, to maintain a clean and healthy environment in the designated area under the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM).  It contributes to global carbon reduction (or emission removal) initiatives and electricity and organic fertilizer production.

iSOAP
DECC is initiating a new system, Integrated Service Oriented Application Platform (iSOAP). Communication, Information, and Dissemination are the three major dimensions of this newly designed system.  The objective of this project is to disseminate information to every corner of BRAC operation (during any pre/post events) to mobilize resources and share data to make strategic decisions in real-time.

Through this system, the cumulative weather forecasting information will be disseminated to the beneficiary groups with the help of BRAC District Representative (DBR) and concerned programmes.

Community-based Disaster Management Training
One of the key objectives of DECC programme is to build capacity at the community level to face naturaldisasters due to climate change. For this reason, DECC Programme has conducted a one day pilot orientation training that focuses on the Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction (CBDRR) Approach. By this training DECC build up awareness at the community level and gather indigenous knowledge from each of them. DECC has divided all of Bangladesh into different disaster prone areas and conducted 69 training batches covering 1030 villages. 

TOT on CBDRR & OLDP
Before starting the staff training, DECC developed a pool of 301 master trainers with the support of BRAC Training Department (BTD) and RedR, India. Along with the BTD trainers, BRAC Health Programme (BHP) and BRAC Education Programme (BEP) trainers and DECC programme staff received ToT (Training of the Trainers) on CBDRR (Community Based Disaster Risk Reduction) and SOP.
Before developing the module, RedR, India conducted a Learning Needs Assessment (LNA) to gauge the BRAC Head Office officials’ and BRAC field staffs’ level of understanding and their usual practices. While developing this module, field visits were made to certain communities to understand BRAC’s responses before, during and after disasters.

Disaster Response

Helping Communities Recover
Cyclone Aila hit Bangladesh’s low-lying coastal belt on May 25, 2009 affecting more than 3 million people in 63 sub-districts, with tidal surges inundating a large part of the region. Our initial response was to provide emergency food and shelter, and then move quickly to assist Aila victims with sustained water and sanitation facilities as well as livelihood opportunities. Unrepaired embankments and the lack of drinking water and dry land for planting crops emerged as major problems.

Support for Health, Hygiene, Water and Sanitation
In the wake of Cyclone Aila, we ensured that communities were visited by health workers to disseminate information on health, nutrition and water borne diseases like diarrhoea, typhoid and skin rashes. We provided urgently needed drinking water by digging ponds, sinking deep tubewells and setting up desalination plants. We also constructed 2,400 latrines on high ground and embankments

Restoring Livelihoods
We are working with the Aila-affected communities to rebuild livelihoods through adoption of new technologies. We introduced salt-tolerant rice crops, fish cultivation and crab fattening in saltwater inundated areas. Grants of USD 219 were made to farmers to cultivate Genetically Modified Farm Tilapia (GIFT) and culture crabs in pens in submerged farmlands. Those without land were given work to make the pens for fish/crab culture. Through these field demonstrations, DECC will ascertain whether brackish water can be utilised to address food security, which can help us plan for climate change.