SAARC can play an important role in combating natural disasters
Even in one single generation of this region have faced multiple phases of disasters. Even, if we forget the impact of devastations caused by 1897 Great Assam earthquake, or 1905 Kangra earthquake, or 1935 Quetta earthquake wherein hundreds of thousands of people lost their lives, hundreds of thousands of people lived with utmost miseries, and billions of dollars development investments was ruined in a flick of a moment, we cannot forget the devastations in very recent times caused by 2005 South Asia Quake, or 2001 Bhuj earthquake, or 1993 Killari earthquake, or 2004 Asian tsunami.
We cannot even forget the recent time devastations caused by 1970 cyclone killing about Three Hundred Thousands people and 1991 cyclone killing about 150,000 people alone in the coastal belt of Bangladesh. In addition to all these sudden disastrous events, the regular seasonal events like floods, landslides, rock falls, debris flow, and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) are causing such enormous miseries to livings, damage to properties, and economic loss those remain unaccountable and unnoticed.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. Nonetheless, all these disastrous effects have direct bearings on the livelihoods and sustainable developments of the South Asian region. The effects and miseries are tied up in a single thread. The action, whether political, social, or economical, in one region is equally reacted in the other region of South Asia. Similarly, the disastrous actions of nature in one region is equally impacted on the other regions, may not be in the same form.
The magnitude of landslides, rockfalls, debris flows, and GLOFs in the Himalayan belt of Nepal, India, and Pakistan carry billions of tons of sediments depositing in the Bengal delta plains, Ganges plains, and Indus plains every year deteriorating its river morphology, and chocking the natural drainage. In turn, the impact is attributed to increased flooding, inundation, riverbank erosion, land loss, miseries and economic loss of the people for the sink regions as it has the disastrous impacts in the source regions.
The people of the South Asian countries are quite frequently being tested, punished and filled with miseries. It seems that the society of this region had enough of ignored humanity, or distressed humanity or deprived humanity! If the human beings are the part of the natural system then for obvious reasons and logic it is to be believed that the acts, the views, and the attitudes of the society should have impact on the nature. The ignorance and non-caring attitude about the nature's behaviour and the processes seem to be the major disastrous effects for the South Asian countries and people. We never know.
But time has evolved to think and act to save and serve mankind of this region. SAARC can play an important role in combating such disastrous natural events. The major constraints in combating disasters lies greatly with ignorance pertaining to nature and trend of the disastrous events, induced anthropogenic factors and practice, pre-disaster planning and preparedness, and post disaster managements. The primary task lies with the processes of awareness drive to motivate people of their living practices in accordance with the natural hazard scenario likely to emerge.
The next parallel tasks are to acquire, monitor, and analyse real time data of all the natural hazards in the South Asian region for setting early warning and disseminating it to every corner of the region. Undoubtedly, this is a massive task that could be achieved through creating a SAARC centre of excellence to deal with all kinds of impending natural hazards. The SAARC centre of excellence must be linked to every national centre of excellence of the South Asian countries in free flowing of data and exchanging ideas, views and research. If SAFTA can have a vision of economic boost and emancipation for the people of South Asia then an agreement like SAFTA could have visions of education and research for emancipation from ignorance. Death is inevitable but painful death is not desirable. Should we not innovate mechanism to combat such natural disasters for the benefit of the humanity?