High impact weather, climate change, and deaths of millions

The world, nature, human beings and the animal kingdom are the most beautiful and wondrous things to explore and enjoy. But very unfortunately natural and preventable man-made/human-induced disasters, conflicts and wars are destroying our only one earth, environment, lives and livelihoods. For example, the worst impacts of climate change that we face unnecessarily. Due to the unjust actions of human beings, nature is hostile and for many other reasons the frequency and severity of human-induced disasters have increased in recent years.

So those cruel, irrational, greedy culprits especially the leaders of the industrialized countries are the enemies of the planet, people, nature and environment. Those industrialized countries are emitting carbon and greenhouse gas that promoting global warming and disasters. The carbon-emitting countries are definitely responsible for the deaths of millions. So we, the innocent poor people of the poor countries are the victims of disasters illogically for the faults of industrialized rich countries. The rich countries must stop climate change, protect environment, and save the earth.

The people at risk are women, children, people with disabilities and senior citizens as they cannot easily cope with the unfavourable environment. Disasters make them more vulnerable and helpless. So the government and development partners must implement policies and projects of disaster prevention and ambitious climate change strategy. It is for survival of disasters-affected people through comprehensive and integrated efforts. Necessary support, collaboration and cooperation for sustainable capacity building are crucial.

In addition, the wars are also disasters. The warmongers are the enemies of the world too. So the wars must be stopped immediately across the globe. We want war free, peaceful world. Pursuant to a recent study of Outforia, a Norway-based knowledge sharing institute that there have been 11,351 deaths from disasters in Bangladesh since 2000. It includes the highest killer storms, which have caused 6,206 deaths. The second highest killer in Bangladesh is flooding, with 3,314 deaths.

Other latest different studies revelled that in Asian countries, 3 454 disasters were recorded from 1970-2019, with approximately ten million lives, and around US$ two trillion economic damages. The scientists observed that climate change is accelerating extreme weather events. Better and timely forecasting, early warning and disaster management are the prime needs to save the lives of millions.

Due to geographical location, Bangladesh is the most vulnerable and indicated zone of disasters like thunderstorms, drought, and floods among others. All thunderstorms produce lightning. Bangladesh is witnessing unusual casualties from lightning. Studies on lightning show that the number of lightning incidents in the country is higher than the high-income countries. The number of deaths increased in past three years. The injuries cause high mortality and significant long term morbidity.

It is evident that the lightning is a public health, social and economic issue. To reduce the deaths, disabilities, loss, damage and related burdens are highly recommended. Partnerships of the regional and global community are must, because lightning is a local national regional and global issue.

Considering all the pressing issues, as part of disaster management and prevention of high impact extreme weather, Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) introduced the High Impact Weather Assessment Toolkit recently. Its successful installation helps simulate extreme weather hazards more accurate operational forecasts. The toolkit was introduced under the SERVIR Hindu Kush Himalaya (SERVIR-HKH) Initiative of the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in collaboration with the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), and United States Agency for International Development (USAID). ICIMOD is a Nepal-based unique intergovernmental knowledge and learning centre that develops and shares research, information, and innovations to empower people of the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region. CIMOD, a unique intergovernmental institution pulse of the planet - the HKH - and the people.

At the launching event, Dr Birendra Bajracharya, Chief of Party of SERVIR-HKH of ICIMOD, made a presentation on HIWAT Bangladesh: "Boisakhi" and its functional features. Birendra said that the BMD applies multiple models from multiple parameters in weather forecasting. The HIWAT will enhance the BMD's capacity and support its decisions. Applying the high impact weather assessment toolkit BMD will be able to issue forecast two days before of any extreme weather event including thunderstorms, Birendra added.

ICIMOD mentioned in its publication that the High-Impact Weather Assessment Toolkit (HIWAT) is a service that provides probabilistic-based thunderstorm hazard forecast guidance to NHMS forecasters and other weather-sensitive decision makers. The NASA SERVIR Applied Sciences Team developed the system and further customized it for Bangladesh. BMD has invested its own resources to install HIWAT on its high-performance computing cluster to support its operational forecasts.

Here we can see the total number of deaths due to some disasters in recent times. World Meteorological Organization (WMO) mentioned that droughts have caused the highest number of deaths, with around 12 million fatalities attributed to a prolonged lack of rain. The second most deadly disaster is floods, which have caused almost seven million deaths worldwide. This is followed by earthquakes and storms in third and fourth place, causing around three and two millions deaths respectively. So we need greater investment in comprehensive disaster risk management ensuring that climate change adaptation is integrated in disaster risk reduction strategies.

The havoc of the COVID-19 pandemic with many other natural and manmade disasters especially extreme weather events during the last 18 months was indescribable. It demonstrates the need for a multi-hazard approach to disaster risk management, early warning systems for reducing risks in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement on climate change.

The Sendai Framework incorporates early warnings into one of its seven global targets. It is to substantially increase the availability, access to multi-hazard early warning systems, disaster risk information and assessments to people by 2030. Anyway, to ensure all kinds of forecasts delivered to the stakeholders in a sustainable manner through digital analysis -- engaging print electronic and social Media is very essential. It helps disseminate information among the people at the right time. Community Radio is helpful for sharing information especially at the coastal, char, remote, hard-to-reach areas.
Parvez Babul is a Radio story teller, journalist, poet, author and activist based in Bangladesh