SURVIVING AT THE EDGES:

Traditional and technical risk reduction

against natural disasters in Bangladesh
HASAN SHAFIE
Professor, Department of Anthropology,
University of Dhaka, Dhaka- 1000, Bangladesh.
Email: hasan.shafie@du.ac.bd
Webpage: www.anthropology.du.ac.bd
CONTENT
• ISSUES AND CONCERNS
• CONTEXT AND SETTINGS
• LOCATING BANGLADESH
• Growing Economy
• Geo–physical Location of Bangladesh
• Gbm River Systems, Ganges Delta and Bengal Basin
ISSUES AND
CONCERNS
ISSUES AND CONCERNS
• Bangladesh sustains significant progresses as a developing economy over the years but such
escalating growth is being recurrently intercepted by multitudinous natural disasters and
socioeconomic processes.
• The deltaic formation history and low- lying coastal morphology has turned Bangladesh into
the most disaster prone region on earth and is highly susceptible to climate change impacts.
• The country is exposed to natural hazards of all possible sorts, such as, floods, riverbank
erosion, cyclones, droughts, water logging, arsenic contamination, salinity intrusion,
tornadoes, cold waves, earthquakes etc.
• The coastal zone of the country is highly vulnerable to climate change driven impacts of
cyclone and subsequent storm surge.
• Inadequate governance, weak institutions, relative deprivation, exploitation and denial of
fundamental human rights including highly polarized access to resources through
commercial and industrial entities and vested-interest groups are defining characteristics of
everyday existence in Bangladesh.
• The situation becomes increasingly worse due to the multiplying effects of high social
vulnerabilities.
CONTEXT
AND
SETTINGS
 BANGLADESH IS MORE THAN A
FLOOD AFFECTED COUNTRY
ACCORDING TO THE IMF, BANGLADESH'S ECONOMY IS THE SECOND FASTEST
GROWING MAJOR ECONOMY OF 2017, WITH A RATE OF 7.3%

ECONOMY OF BANGLADESH IS THE 42ND LARGEST IN THE WORLD IN NOMINAL

TERMS, AND 31ST LARGEST BY PURCHASING POWER PARITY
 ECONOMY OF BANGLADESH
Sr.
Economic Indicators Bangladesh Year
No.
01 GDP Growth Rate 7.05% 2015 –2016
02 GDP Per Capita Income 1466 US$ 2015 –2016
03 Inflation Rate (Point to Point) 5.65 2015 –2016
04 Investment Contribution to GDP 29.38% 2015 – 2016
Public 07.60% 2015 – 2016
Private 21.78% 2015 – 2016
Source: BIDA
2017, 05 FDI Inflows 2235.39 Million US$ FY 2015–16
Bangladesh 06 Export 31198.45 Million US$ FY 2015–16
Bureau of
Statistics (BBS), 07 Import 40685.00 Million US$ FY 2015–16
Bangladesh
Bank (BB) 08 Population 1,60,578,266 2017
BANGLADESH ECONOMY:
Budget and Growth Trends
BUDGET GROWTH

4645.73
(BDT bn)
TREND

4002.70
3406.10
2951.00
2505.50
2224.90
1917.40
1635.90
Source: Ministry of Finance, GoB
FY'− 2011- 12 FY'− 2012- 13 FY'− 2013- 14 FY'− 2014- 15 FY'− 2015- 16 FY'− 2016- 17 FY'− 2017- 18 FY'− 2018- 19

7.50

GDP GROWTH

7.30
7.20
7.00

TREND 6.50

6.55
6.52
6.46
6.00

6.06
6.01
5.50

5.57
5.50
5.00
FY'− 2009- FY'− 2010- FY'− 2011- FY'− 2012- FY'− 2013- FY'− 2014- FY'− 2015- FY'− 2016- FY'− 2017-
Source: Ministry of Finance, GoB 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
 BANGLADESH ECONOMY:
Sectoral Employment Trends (2007 – 2017)
Agriculture Industry Service

36.48 35.89 35.34 35.07 33.94 33.90 34.11 35.33 36.88 38.02 39.85

15.06 15.76 16.71 17.63 17.74 18.79 20.79 20.17 20.46 20.84 21.09

48.46 48.35 47.95 47.31 48.33 47.31 45.10 44.50 42.67 41.14 39.07

Source: Statista,
2018 based on Y ' − 2007 Y ' − 2008 Y ' − 2009 Y ' − 2010 Y ' − 2011 Y ' − 2012 Y ' − 2013 Y ' − 2014 Y ' − 2015 Y ' − 2016 Y ' − 2017
World Bank Data
BANGLADESH ECONOMY:
Bangladesh Unemployment Rate –Trends & Forecast

Source:
tradingeconomics.com
from BBS, GoB
 Growth of Internet Usage in Asian
Countries since 2000 (Source: IWS 2018)
Pakistan 0.13 44

South Korea 47
19
Thailand 2.3 57

Vietnam 0.2 64

Phillippines 67
2
Y- 2017
Bangladesh 0.1 80
Y- 2000
Japan 118
47
Indonesia 2 143

India 5 462

China 772
22
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 900
Percent Increase in Internet Usage since
2000 (Source: Analysis based on data fromIWS 2018).
90000

80000

70000

60000

50000

40000

30000

20000

10000

Vietnam
China

Indonesia

Japan

Thailand

South Korea
India

Bangladesh

Phillippines

Pakistan
GEO-
PHYSICAL
LOCATION
COUNTRY PROFILE

• Low-lying deltaic country in South Asia formed by the Ganges,

the Brahmaputra and the Meghna rivers.
• About 93% of the catchment area is outside the international
boundary
• The rivers of Bangladesh drain run-off of upstream catchments
of area about 1.73 Million square km
• More than 310 rivers and tributaries have made this country a
land of rivers.
• The country has the world’s longest unbroken sandy beach of
120km
GANGES, BHAHMAPUTRA AND
MEGHNA RIVER BASIN
DISASTER
AND CLIMATE
CHANGE
COUNTRY DISASTER PROFILE
Natural and human induced hazards –
o Floods
o Cyclones
o Droughts
o Tidal Surges
o Tornadoes
o Earthquakes
o River Erosion
o Fire
o Infrastructure Collapse
o high arsenic contents of ground water water logging, water and soil salinity
• Victim to global Climate Change, most vulnerable country
FLOOD
RIVERBANK
EROSION
CYCLONE
1960 - 2009
CYCLONE
1960 - 2009
RISK
REDUCTION:
POLICIES,
INSTITUTIONS
AND FINANCE
Influence of Actors and Agencies in the
Making of BCCSAP
CCA AND DRR
INCLUSIVE
PLANNING AND
IMPLEMENTATION
AT SECTORAL
LEVEL
Outline of Climate Fund Streaming in
Bangladesh
CLIMATE CHANGE LEADS TO BONDED
LABOR
• Farmers shift from paddy to mango as water dwindles and heat rises,
forcing now-redundant farm labour to borrow for survival and go into
bondage
THANK
YOU