Thrust on building disaster-resilient country with united efforts

The International Day for Disaster Risk Reduction was observed in different districts of the country including Gopalganj, Joypurhat and Rajbari on Tuesday, with the theme "Let us start from home - let us build a disaster-resilient country".

GOPALGANJ: in the district, the Day was observed through various programmes, including a colourful procession and a discussion meeting. The district administration organised the events.

A rally was brought out from in front of the deputy commissioner (DC) office in the morning. The procession passed through the main roads in the district town and ended at Sushason Chattar.

Later, at a discussion meeting held there, Additional DC (Overall) S M Tarek Sultan, Additional Superintendent of Police (SP) Mohammad Kazi Humayun Rashid and Deputy Assistant Director of Fire Service Shipu Ahmed spoke.

After the discussion meeting, Fire Service and Red Crescent workers conducted a disaster prevention drill. Students from various educational institutions took part in the programme.

JOYPURHAT: On the occasion, the district administration organised a colourful rally, a fire-fighting drill and a discussion meeting.

A colourful rally was brought out from the DC office premises on Tuesday morning. The rally paraded the main roads of the town and ended at the same place.

Later, the Fire Service and Civil Defence arranged a practical awareness drill on what to do during natural and man-made disasters and on fire-fighting.

After the drill, a discussion meeting was held. It was presided over by DC Md Al-Mamun Mia.

Additional DC Nurul Islam, Deputy Assistant Director of the district Fire Service and Civil Defence Shariful Islam and District BNP Convener Golzar Hossain, among others, spoke at the discussion meeting, along with local administrative officials and distinguished persons.

The speakers said there is no alternative to raising awareness at the personal and social levels to reduce the damage caused by any natural or man-made disaster. They called upon everyone to start awareness from their own homes instead of relying solely on the government to tackle disasters. At the same time, they emphasised building a disaster-resilient country through everyone's coordinated and effective efforts.

RAJBARI: To mark the Day, a discussion meeting was held in the conference room of the DC on Tuesday. The meeting was presided over by Md Ariful Haque, Officer-in-Charge of the district Relief and Rehabilitation Office and Assistant Commissioner. ADC Md Tarif-ul-Hasan was the chief guest at the meeting.

Among others, Additional SP Md Shamsul Haque, former joint convener of BNP Gazi Ahsan Habib, Deputy Assistant Director of Fire Service Sohel Rana Dewan, Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Sadar Md Fayzur Rahman and NGO representative Lutfar Rahman Labu spoke at the meeting.

In his speech as the chief guest, ADC Tarif-ul-Hasan said,  the Day is observed worldwide every year with the aim of reducing disaster risk, preventing loss of life and damage to property, and raising public awareness to tackle disasters. 

He stressed the need to focus on safe housing, risk-resilient infrastructure and family-based disaster preparedness to reduce disaster damage.

He said although disasters cannot be fully prevented, loss of life and damage to property can be reduced to a large extent through advance preparation, science-based planning, effective early warning systems and collective efforts. For this, every family must be prepared to tackle disasters as well as raise awareness.

He further said a capable and resilient Bangladesh can be built by creating safe families, disaster-resilient infrastructure and an aware population.

After the discussion meeting, various disaster mitigation techniques were demonstrated in front of the DC office.