CAPACITY NEED ASSESSMENT FOR EARTHQUAKE RESPONSE IN DHAKA CITY

Abstract

Bangladesh is located close to many active faultsand it has not experienced a major earthquake since long. Nonetheless, countries around Bangladesh namely China, India and Nepal have witnessed huge loss of lives and colossal damage of properties on account of earthquake in the last two decades. Many experts now maintain that Bangladesh in general and Dhaka in particular is vulnerable to earthquake disaster. The vulnerability of Dhaka is very high primarily because of poor adherence to national building code that led to the growth of many unplanned structures. Extremely high population density in the city of Dhaka has only worsened its vulnerability. Inadequate awareness and poor preparation of the city dwellers would certainly demand higher degree of response at the very critical initial stage after any major earthquake. Accordingly, the country needs to gear up its capacity building for earthquake response operations in all major cities especially in Dhaka. However, any capacity building process must be preceded by an exhaustive "Capacity Need Assessment" to depict thegaps, whichexist at different levels of stakeholders of earthquake response. Findings of such capacity need assessment would ultimately pave the way to formulate a capacity enhancement strategy. It is needless to say that the Government of Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh has put due importance to Earthquake Disaster Management. The main aim of this research work was to assess the capacity gaps/needs of the units/organization, which are responsible for earthquake response operations in Dhaka City. So far, the whole Dhaka City has been divided into eight sectors and eight units of Bangladesh Armed Forces and Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) are made responsible to operate in these sectors in earthquake eventuality. There are some other important stakeholders like Bangladesh Fire Service & Civil Defence, Dhaka South City Corporation, Dhaka North City Corporation, and Directorate General Health Services etc. to unfold respective response operations with a view to mitigating the sufferings of people and allowing them to get back to normal life. As such, efforts have been made to study the existing or baseline capacity of these important stakeholders. Attempts were also made to explore various other sources of un-tapped earthquake response capabilities. There is no denying the fact that the response capacity of these stakeholders would largely determine the success of any earthquake response operation in Dhaka City. This research work has been a cross-sectional study, based primarily on the subjectivism position of ontology and the interpretivism position of epistemology where understanding of human behavior was an important focus. In many cases, conclusions were drawn from interpretations of human actions and their perception especially while studying the ‘Awareness and Preparation for Earthquake Response’ of Dhaka City Dwellers. Importantly, the research has a very strong exploratory component where attempts were made to explore new ideas and approaches to a particular problem or situation. On the other hand, the study used both qualitative and quantitative methods. Under qualitative research, a number of focus group discussions, interviews, and literature reviews were carried out to get in-depth information about respondents’ behavior, attitude and perception on various aspects. Quantitative research used statistical methods to analyze the data collected to explain phenomenon and to test hypotheses. As the study involved information gathering, among others, from four Brigades of Bangladesh Army, two Bases of Bangladesh Air Force, Bangladesh Naval Admin Authority Dhaka and Bangladesh Border Guards; due participation was ensured from the key personnel of these units while capacity need was assessed, as suggested by literature. So, a kind of participatory assessment was done for these units where views of commanders were of great importance. All these units kindly shared their own standard operating procedures, contingency plans and pamphlets prepared for earthquake response. Accordingly, analysis has been done with regards to their preparation for earthquake and resources available with them for earthquake response operation. Similarly, the key appointment holders of other important stakeholders were also interviewed while assessing the baseline capacity for them. The study also explored the potential for earthquake response lying with different civil engineering firms operating at Dhaka. There was no database available about such firms and hence a snowball approach was adopted while sampling in this respect. The author could finally select 20 reputed civil engineering firms, engaged primarily in construction and possessed a sizeable number of resources that can be used in search and rescue. Interestingly, some of them were found with experiences of rescuing people from collapsed structures. Historically, the community people were the first responders in all disasters especially during first 72 hours. Findings of various studies maintain that the community people have the added advantage of knowing the area and they, after absorbing the initial shock, look for helping their near and dear ones. As such, their capacity in terms of earthquake response would continue to matter in any future disaster too. The awareness and preparation of city dwellers of Dhaka for earthquakeswould also determine the response support required for them. For example, if they are well prepared with dry food and drinking water, the requirement relief food would certainly be less. So, 715 city dwellers from Dhaka were served with a questionnaire primarily to know the level of their awareness and preparedness. Since the population density and crowding of building structures are different in different areas of Dhaka City, the city dwellers were grouped into three categories namely ‘Modern Dhaka’, ‘Semi-modern Dhaka’ and ‘Old Dhaka’ to make a comparison of findings among the categories. The study found that there is need for overall capacity building for all the main operational units (eight units of armed forces) but invarying degrees. It is also revealed that some of these units have the scope of resource sharing. The‘14 Independent Engineering Brigade’, for example, would be able to share some SAR resources with units, which are badly lagging in this respect. Similarly, the ‘86 Independent Signal Brigade’ have the capacity to share some of its communication equipment with other units. Most of the units do not have sufficient manpower to effectively operate in a postearthquake scenario and would require reinforcement from other formations/units. The draft contingency plan of Armed Forces Division has outlined wherefrom such reinforcement would come. Another important finding of the study is that the units need to update their own contingency plan because some plans are even 15 years old. Similarly, there is also a need for standalone policy guidelinesfor other stakeholders that would encompass their span of responsibilities.With regards to training, the Armed Forces Division is playing the most pivotal role by jointly organizing the annual training event Disaster Response Exercise & Exchange (DREE).Importantly, the main operational units are being given the responsibility of organizing the Field Training Exercise (FTX) of DREE. Such delegation of responsibility has immense training valueand would gradually help prepare all the main operational units within couple of years, as observed by the author. However, to facilitate immediate unfolding of SAR operation by these units, the Government may allocate sufficient fund to these units for procuring some heavy-duty SAR equipment and prepare men to work behind these machines. Otherwise, the Government may also centrally procure such equipment and distribute among these units based on their operational requirement. An important finding of this study is that there would be no effective ‘Early Warning’ given for earthquake incident from Bangladesh Meteorological Department. On the other hand, effective ‘Damage Assessment’ would not be possible from Space Research and Remote Sensing Organization (SPARRSO). Accordingly, the study recommends for a dedicated drone unit for damage assessment. The study also observed that the area of responsibility for all the sectors needs to be reviewed since some new areas (some unions)have recently been included in the City Corporations and owing to the fact that Dhaka City Corporation itself is bifurcated to give rise to DNCC and DSCC. Some main operational units might face difficulties in coordinating with two City Corporations since their area of responsibilities spread over both DNCC and DSCC. Besides, the search and rescue assets being procured through ongoing Urban Resilience Project for capacity building of City Corporations might be strengthened and there may be more warehouses across Dhaka City to house such assets. The Fire Service and Civil Defence may also strengthen its volunteer training programme but with an emphasis of recruiting local people from all Wards of Dhaka City. Besides, there may be a separate volunteer training programme for the main operational units of Armed Forces and BGB as they would require a good number of such volunteers. The findings of this study amply highlight that there is need for making city dwellers, especially the people of Old Dhaka more aware of the likelihood of earthquake in Dhaka City, and they should be encouraged to enhance their level of preparedness. Authorities of power and gas supply may arrange for simple training sessions for the city dwellers so that they exactly know how to put off the power supply and gas supply from the residences in the immediate aftermath of major earthquake. It is an important outcome of this research work to highlight that there is huge potential among the construction workers and pharmacy workers for using them in earthquake response operation. Their expertise would be of immense value in conducting SAR operation and in providing first aid (medical care) in a post-earthquake milieu. It is also observed that Civil Engineering firms operating at and around Dhaka City possess a very good number of SAR resources that has the potential to be engaged in earthquake emergencies provided there is some peacetime understanding in this respect. The implicationsof these results for the country are that the stakeholders, under study, would come to know the areas for furtherimprovement. They would be able to better device their own strategies for capacity enhancement. They would also be able to make better peacetime coordination with other organizations and establishments to get the much-needed reinforcement and other support during earthquake emergencies. The policy makers would be able to formulate judicious policies after rightly appreciating the need for capacity building of different stakeholders including the city dwellers. The concerned authorities would be able to better appreciate the need for preserving the open spaces of the city to use them as emergency assembly area. The earmarking or preassignment of limited open space of Dhaka City would reduce the chaos and confusion when people would be rushing for shelter under stress. Management of earthquake emergency in a city like Dhaka would no doubt be a gigantic task and hence the coordination aspects of all the major stakeholders need to be reviewed time to time. Arrangement of mockup drill and other training programmes are to be continued as revealed by this study. Nonetheless, further research is also recommended to be undertaken at certain intervals to monitor the progress of any ongoing capacity building programme and to assess what else are required to be done.