Preparing for disasters
Photo: STAR
Natural and anthropogenic disasters (e.g. earthquake, cyclone, fire, etc.) can occur any time and cause a national crisis in Bangladesh. A densely populated country as we are, such disasters may be catastrophic unless we are prepared. When we will have better preparations and trained citizens in place, we will be better off to deal with such situations and save millions of lives. Countrywide mass safety training and drills will help people to be well-prepared during any disaster. I request the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management to take the initiative of safety training countrywide. The training can be held once a year. During the training, people will stop working for an hour to participate in the training and evacuate workplaces, homes, hospitals, educational institutions and public places and gather at a pre-arranged safe place, conduct a head count and record the evacuation time. People will resume their works after the training. The ministry can involve security forces including Bangladesh Police, Rapid Action Battalion, defense forces and other private security forces to coordinate the training. Such trainings will be useful to make people aware about emergency situations and reduce the disaster management costs significantly.
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