Sylhet Bureau

An awareness workshop on the expansion of Scaling Up Forecast-Based Action and Learning in Bangladesh (SUFAL ) programme held at the Sylhet District Commissioner's conference room on Monday.

Director General of Disaster Management Department Md. Mizanur Rahman attend the workshop as a chief guest.

he said his speech that disaster teaches people to struggle and love. The current government is always ready to face the crisis moment. Bangladesh is a model in the world for disaster management and humanitarian assistance. Stands by people in all kinds of disasters.

In order to protect the country and the people of the country, people should be informed with the right information to deal with natural disasters. We have to do something not only for ourselves but also for the society. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has made this country known as a powerful state in the world.

Under his dynamic leadership, the country today is on the highway of development, making incredible progress. Everyone has to work together to make this country a modern state within the next 41 years. He called on all levels of people to work shoulder-to-shoulder with the government for the welfare of the country and not only to deal with the disaster. Deputy Commissioner of Sylhet Sheikh Russell Hasan Presided over the Workshop.

Additional Deputy Commissioner Hossain Mohammad Al Junayed, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Revenue) Tausif Ahmad, Additional Deputy Commissioner (Education) ASM Kashem, Sunamganj District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer Shafiqul Islam, Sylhet District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer Nurul Islam Sylhet Press Club President Iqbal Siddiqui, UP Chairman Shahabuddin Shihab spoke as special guests.

In the President's speech, Deputy Commissioner Sheikh Russel Hasan said that the coordination of the government and development and humanitarian organizations is very important in dealing with the overall disaster.

Conducted by Afsari Begum, Program Coordinator of Concern Worldwide Bangladesh, Sylhet District Deputy Director (Local Government), Additional District Administrators, representatives of various government departments, relief and rehabilitation officers of Sylhet and Sunamganj districts, local government representatives and humanitarian organizations were present in the workshop.

At the beginning of the workshop, the Deputy Director of Humanitarian and Resilience, CARE Bangladesh, Mrityunjoy Das, gave a welcome speech. Sufal's goals and outcomes were presented by Kazi Rabeya Amy, Consortium Coordinator of Sufal, CARE Bangladesh. Concern Worldwide Program Director Jyotiraj Patra moderated the open discussion and Q&A session.

Notably, Sufal is a consortium project funded by the European Union Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECO) led by CARE Bangladesh with the participation of Concern Worldwide and RIMES.

A review of the evaluation of predictive response activities in Howrah shows that the concept is still quite new. Forecasts of flash floods and lightning do not reach the public in a timely manner; Given the forecast, there is no clear action plan and no pre-determined funding mechanism to take action in advance. As a result of this and based on the experience of implementing forecast based response activities in the north-western monsoon prone areas of the project, 'Sufal' is expanding its activities to the flash flood and lightning prone Haor areas in the north-eastern part of the country.

Apart from Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur and Bogra, the project will now implement forecast-based activities in Sylhet, Sunamganj and Netrokona. One of the objectives of the Sufal project is to reduce risk by increasing the capacity of communities and institutions in predictive activities. The project is already working in coordination with the Flood Forecasting and Warning Center under the Bangladesh Water Development Board to provide impact based forecasting and extended time forecasting of seasonal floods.

The project will further work with the Bangladesh Meteorological Department to improve flash flood early warning and lightning forecasting at local time. Along with raising the forecast, the project is also working tirelessly to fund advance activities.