Committed to PEOPLE'S RIGHT TO KNOW
Vol. 5 Num 1082 Sun. June 17, 2007  
   
Editorial


By The Numbers
Man-induced disasters


The landslides that occurred in Chittagong, causing the tragic death of at least 128 people, has once again sent a loud and clear message to the world that Bangladesh is not a country of chaos and corruption only, but also of man-induced disasters. Foreign media have already termed it as one of the biggest man-induced environmental disasters.

Bangladesh is not a stranger to natural disaster. Natural disasters like storms, cyclones, tornados, floods, tidal bores etc, are more or less known to the people of this country. As these are inevitable and unavoidable, we can console ourselves that we are victims of nature's fury. But we have no consolation for the helpless victims of man-induced disasters, which have increasing tremendously in recent days.

The disastrous landslides wrought death, injury and destruction in vast, hilly localities in Chittagong. It may seem logical to think that no man had any hand in this disaster, because incessant torrential rains triggered the landslides.

Yes, landslides may sometimes occur purely because of natural causes. But it is not really nature that is to blame for the Chittagong disaster. Some greedy and corrupt people have forcibly invited the catastrophe.

Mindless hill cutting and felling of trees are causing environmental hazards and increasing the incidence of landslides in Chittagong. There is no record of such disastrous landslides in the past decades and centuries. The experts attribute such landslides mainly to widespread hill cutting.

Most of the hills in Chittagong faced rampant cutting until recently. According to the people working with the issue of hill cutting, influential political leaders, truck owners' associations, real estate developers, contractors, brick field owners and local goons used to conduct the hill cutting business through managing the concerned government officials.

The Ministry of Environment and Forest and the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA), in view of widespread destruction of hills in the district, issued a circular in 2005 prohibiting hill cutting.

Since several political bigwigs operated the hill cutting business from behind the scene, no effective measure was taken to stop the practice. Eventually, it put the lives of the people living in the hilly localities in real danger.

It is indeed surprising that there are no laws in the country to deal with hill cutting offences. The hill cutters could be so reckless because the existing hill cutting act 1988 has some ambiguous laws that facilitated their activities.

There are quite a number of cases filed against the hill cutters, but the offenders could not be punished because of legal loopholes. The hill cutting act 1988 should be amended to punish the real culprits behind this catastrophe, and also to stop such suicidal practices.

Chief Adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed sounded a strong warning against illegal hill cutting. Communication and Disaster Management Adviser Major General (Retd) M.A. Matin has directed the local administration to take tougher action against the culprits involved in hill cutting. "If necessary, crush them under steam-rollers with the help of military-led joint forces," said M. A. Matin, firmly blaming the people involved in hill cutting for the causalities.

Unnatural deaths have become a part of life in Bangladesh. There is perhaps no other country where human life is as unsafe in as ours. The people of this country have witnessed increasing number of devastating man-induced disasters, that return with irritable regularity, over the last one and a half decades.

If there are no accidents like fire, or collapse of factory buildings or landslides, then there will be launch disasters or fatal road accidents. Two major launch disasters occurred in a single week in May, 2005, killing over 300 people. About 12000 people lose their lives every year in road accidents in our country. Over 450 garment workers, mostly women and children, died in some 25 fire-related incidents in garment factories since 1990.

A devastating fire at a garment factory killed 54 workers, and 150 others were badly burnt in the inferno that engulfed a four-storey factory building in Chittagong on February 23, 2006. The nine storied building that collapsed like a house of cards at Savar in 2005, killing more than one hundred workers, was the worst industrial catastrophe in the country's history.

We can blame nature's fury for the deaths in natural disasters. But whom should we blame for the deaths in man-induced disasters? We should bring into cognizance the fact that the regular accidents in garment factories, roads, rivers and hills are not mere accidents, as they fall in a totally different category. The owners of garment factories, launches and buses, and the hill-cutters, should be made to realize that such "accidental" death is tantamount to murder.

Unfortunately, the government is yet to formulate any regulatory framework for coordinated disaster management. The government only wakes up just after a disaster occurs, and flounces a few days without any outcome. The government agencies responsible for disaster management have become lethargic in the absence of a disaster management policy.

It has been learnt that the latest move to formulate a National Disaster Management Plan came after the fire incident in BSEC building at Karwan Bazar in February. The draft plan now awaits approval of the council of advisers. The caretaker government should take proper steps to formulate the National Disaster Management Plan for apportioning of the responsibilities of different ministries and agencies regarding disaster management.

The government took a five-year project titled, "Comprehensive Disaster Management Project" (CDMP), with December-2008 deadline, to reduce risks of natural calamities, with special focus on creating awareness about the earthquakes. The Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief (MDMR) was assigned the task of implementing the project, jointly financed by UNDP and DFID.

We had very bitter experiences with our Ministry of Disaster Management, which was utterly helpless in the rescue operation after the collapse of the nine-storied Spectrum Sweater building at Savar in April 2005. It took seven days to finish the rescue work, resulting in the death of many trapped workers. Their inability was again exposed in the fire incident at BSEC building. The country must have enough equipment and trained personnel to handle post-disaster situations.

ANM Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.