The deadliest landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains have already claimed at least 140 lives in the hilly districts in southeast Bangladesh.
The government had took no preventive measures to tackle the natural calamity that hit Rangamati, Bandarban, Khagrachhari and Chittagong districts.
The district administration does not even have a list of areas at risk of landslides.
Experts said, given the geographically unique character of the region, it is important to have a list of places suitable for human habitat in the hilly areas.
Scientific mapping and surveys must be carried out, the experts added.
They also blamed the unplanned settlements and massive deforestation in the hill tracts for the great loss of lives in the districts.
Professor of Dhaka University geography department, Syed Humayun Akhtar, said, “We must have a map of risk-prone areas. If we had that, lives could have been saved.”
Asked about the government’s precautions, the additional deputy commissioner of Rangamati, Prokash Kanti Chowdhury, told Prothom Alo that the district administration has no list of unsafe residential areas. The roads and highway department has a list in this regard, he said.
Khagrachhari district was the least affected by the landslides. A body of one person so far been recovered from the district.
The additional deputy commissioner of Khagracchari, Gofran Faruki, said the authorities warned the residents after the heavy rains in the areas.
He said the district administration has no list of the vulnerable areas.
Bandarban’s additional deputy commissioner, Didar Alam M Maksud Chowdhury, said every year the authorities make a list of the unsafe areas and a list was prepared this year too.
“People of the hazardous areas were removed after the rains began,” he said.
He confessed that the landslide-hit places were not on the list.
Director general of the disaster management directorate Mohammed Riaz Ahmed said a list was made after the deadly landslide in 2007 that killed 127 people in Chittagong district.
But the list was not updated. “It would have been good if we had an updated one.”
Disaster management expert Gawher Nayeem Wahra told Prothom Alo the administration has no list of the unsafe parts of the hilly districts.
“The administration does not bother to make people aware of risks involved in living there. The hill dwellers face endless disaster due to the administration’s failures and limitations.”
Source: Prothom Alo
