Resilience to natural disasters: A case study on southwestern region of coastal Bangladesh

Md. Humayain Kabir; Tanvir Hossain; Md. Wahidul Haque

doi:10.18485/ijdrm.2022.4.2.6

Md. Humayain Kabir Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh
Tanvir Hossain Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh
Md. Wahidul Haque Institute of Forestry and Environmental Sciences, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh

DOI: https://doi.org/10.18485/ijdrm.2022.4.2.6

Keywords: Natural disasters, Resilience, Coastal areas, Bangladesh

Abstract

Bangladesh is one the disaster-prone countries in the world and has been suffering from different negative impacts. However, over the years, the coastal communities have developed their resilience capacity. This research assessed the local peoples’ resilience against natural disasters at Kazirchar village in Muladi Upazila of Barishal district of the coastal region. In this study, an extensive literature review on disaster resilience, well-structured questionnaire survey, and focus group discussions were conducted to collect primary data. Most of the indicators like show low values for socioeconomic resilience. The index value of literacy rate (1.12), primary health care facility (1.25), food consumption (1.30) and income (1.30) showed low disaster resilience. The result from the survey area implies a low level of institutional resilience (1.75). The reason behind low institutional resilience was weak disaster management activities. The index value of training (1.42), school/college (1.92), public awareness programme (2.14), and coordination (1) showed medium to very low of disaster resilience index. Results also showed that the villagers have low physical resilience. From the survey, Electricity supply (1.08), dependency on rainfall (1.08), cyclone and flood warning system (2.10), water bodies (1.56) and housing pattern (2.94) were the physical indicators of this village showed medium to low disaster resilience index. The overall disaster resilience ranges from 1 to 2.94. Depending on the score, disaster resilience level is divided into five categories from high (3>2.5), medium (2.5>2), low (2>1.5) to very low (1.5>1.0). Based on the resilience index the overall disaster resilience of Kazirchar village is low because of its low socio- economic (1.67), institutional (1.75) and physical (1.68) resilience values. The findings of this study will help to take necessary actions for building a more disaster resilient coastal Bangladesh.

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