Post disaster rehabilitation: Political Economy of Disaster and Climate Change Spending

The cataclysmic flood in Sunamganj became the daily lead news in all print and electronic media. Though after the incident, all are about to forget it.  From my early life struggle in haor area, the eleven years experience in the disaster management process and the academic background on political economy, disaster reduction and climate change, I feel deep inside to write something on this issue. The nature of flood of ecological haor area should be scrutinized differently from the flood of another area; not only for diverged disaster affect but also for disaster management process. This is why, we should look into two issues gingerly- one, climate change impact on increasing disaster-intensity and two, the actors and their decision-making process on public spending relevant to disaster and climate change.

The disaster management experiences like dam making, relief amount and seed distribution in another area should not be copied in this haor area because the environmental issues and ecology are different here. Moreover, this year flood level and impact are more severe than the previous experiences. Experts make the climate change responsible for this. Dams breach; flood control embankments are collapsed in 142 haors; 2.23 hactre land-crops submerged and 2 lac people affected. The number of affected people should be more as 30 lac people live there. The inhabitants including women and children are suffering from huge losses such as crops, fishes, homesteads, livestock and other water species from this unknown climate change leading to severely increased disaster.

The second issue here is the actors and their decision making process on public spending relevant to disaster and climate change. Political economy is everywhere even in disaster and climate change issues. Political economy, among many issues, mainly deals with power in decisions, resource allocation and government’s interaction with the stakeholders. The key actors of disaster management are the community, local government representatives, government organizations, NGOs, media, and civil society. If we consider the climate change, it involves global actors such as multi-donor fund countries, WB, and UNDP. World level researches claim that disaster fund distribution is often motivated by politics of pity, power politics, actor’s benefit, and interests, and vote-based allocations; the climate fund allocation is diverted by interests, ideas, and incentives of the actors. So the efforts do not result in positive always.

However, the good thing is that the president and the Prime Minister of Bangladesh have visited the Sunamganj Haor area. Definitely, it has a positive impact on the psychology of the affected people and the relief distribution speed and volume will be geared. The government already has declared the allocation of Tk. 10 crore and 100-day scheme for the haor area; 30 kg rice and Tk. 500 for each affected family, and some more initiatives are taken so far. These efforts are praiseworthy. Whatever the way, with all efforts this crisis will be passed. But what will be the rehabilitation program and the future plan? We cannot stop natural disaster; we can reduce the losses.

The problems around are and the probable solutions could be as follows. First, we should not run after short-sighted opinions. Breaching dam or any one-man idea cannot be a panacea for all problems. Scientific-researches are needed for calculating the actual losses, identifying the factors of increasing disaster and climate change impacts, reasons of fishes and duck dying (uranium or others) and for proper assessment of vulnerability. The instant reports sent by local district and sub-district level offices are not always scientifically collected. If the decision is taken based on all those quick reports, it will not achieve the goals. Second, proper policies and actions for disaster risk reduction (such as suitable embankment) and climate change adaptation (such as water tolerant seed crops) should be implemented so that both environments, ecology of the area is protected and the farmers can take their crops to their home on time. Third, collaboration among ministries (disaster, environment, LG, livestock and others) should be established. For removing the overlapping of efforts and efficient use of resources, the coordination and communication among various programs and projects such as Comprehensive Disaster Management Program (CDMP), Bangladesh Climate Change Resilience Fund (BCCRF) and Bangladesh Climate Change Trust Fund (BCCTF) should be placed in reality. Fourth, the developed countries and multi-donor organizations should not be strict on their own goals and preconceived perceptions. The idea which is best for Argentina could be a worst for Bangladesh. They should realize the harsh impact of climate change on Bangladesh and do local need assessments.  Providing the climate change adaptation fund has to do more transparently to the needed countries. The climate fund intermediaries, such as the Green Climate Fund (GCF), UNDP and World Bank, need to be better at speeding the delivery of climate change funds. Fifth, the opposition party, media, civil society and research organizations should not only criticize the ruling party; they should stand beside the affected people and submit the future plan with better proposals. Sixth, loans disbursed by the government organizations (such as BRDB), banks and NGOs should be rescheduled or loan-forgiveness could be the best option. Seventh, we also have the implementation and monitoring problems. Affected people those who have a connection with local government representatives and local political elites get relief and other resources. Infrastructural works are also diverted that undermine the real necessities. Strict monitoring is needed. Last, emphasis should be in long term plans such as more investment on disaster and climate change. But the problem is- globally it is seen that as the ruling party changes in every five years, the governments do not want to invest for long. NGOs also have same issues. Everyone wants immediate results. As Lalon says “who leave cash in exchange of future hope (bakir love nogod pauna ke sereche ei vubone)”.

Tackling disaster and climate change impact, especially adapting to its unknown adverse impacts, is a learning-by-doing process. We should set long-term actions. Then we can check in every five years what worked and what didn’t, and then revise the next set of actions.

-Dr. Shafiqul Islam,  School of Environment, Griffith University, Australia. email: shafiq.bcs@gmail.com