Learning from the 2020 floods in Faridpur District, Bangladesh to build resilience
This paper assesses the 2020 floods in Faridpur District, Bangladesh to build resilience. Bangladesh is a highly disaster-prone country due to a combination of topography, climate, and exposure to natural hazards. Nonetheless, 2020 was distinct for the series of compounding events that devastated communities across Bangladesh. According to the Needs Assessment Working Group report, the 2020 monsoon flooding affected 5.4 million people and 1,059,295 households were inundated. The Ministry of Agriculture reported that US$42 m worth of crops, a total of 83,000 hectares of paddy fields, and 125,549 hectares of agricultural land were damaged across the country. Furthermore, the floods caused moderate to severe damage to livestock and fisheries.
The paper concludes with the following lessons learned:
- Union Parishads need greater funding and capacity building to be fully functional and active;
- Flood early warnings need to reach the ‘last mile’ with adequate lead time;
- Improve coordination and collaboration between communities, local government, and institutions to improve understanding of community needs;
- Improve multi-hazard preparedness;
- Emergency response actors can do more to reduce disruption and the recovery timeframe; and
- River management needs to be better coordinated between government departments and institutions.
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