Sunday, April 14, 2013

DMB - Disaster Management Bureau, Bangladesh


Hello Readers,
This post is another review of a recently launched web portal of the Govt. of The Peoples Republic of Bangladesh.

Based on the geomorphology and physiography, Bangladesh is mainly alluvial delta plain land which is divided into three zones:

  • Hills,
  • Terraces and
  • Flood Plain 

The country has an approximate land area of 147,570 Sq.km. There are three mighty rivers in Bangladesh namely, the Padma (known as the Ganges in India), the Brahmaputra and the Meghna.


The land in the country frequently visited by natural hazards like floods, droughts, tornadoes, cyclones with accompanying storm surges, river-bank erosion's and earthquake etc. These are the most common natural disasters in the country.

Bangladesh, which is also in close proximity with the Himalayas (Everest), has a long history of seismic tremors. Four great earthquakes of magnitude exceeding 8 (eight) during the years: 1897, 1905, 1934, 1950 and another 10 (ten) earthquakes exceeding magnitude belt during the last 100 years.


The massive losses of lives and properties caused by these kind of natural disasters with repeated frequency in short intervals made Bangladesh one of the most disaster prone country in the world.

A little History about DMB:
Disaster Management in Bangladesh had gone through a process of significant reforms. Previously the focus was limited in relief and rehabilitation activities. Following the devastating floods of 1988 and the cyclone of 1991, which has created a massive destruction in the economy and a short-term project titled Assistance to Ministry of Relief in Coordination of Cyclone Rehabilitation: BGD/91/021 was taken up after the killer cyclone of 29 April, 1991.


While implementing the project, the Project Steering Committee (PSC) chaired by the Member (Programming and SEI), Planning Commission at one of its meetings on 28 January, 1993. In conformity with this endorsement, the Government of Bangladesh established the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) in April, 1993 as the successor of the Disaster Coordination and Monitoring Unit.

Mandates of the DMB:

  • Promote awareness building activities.
  • A facilitator for the preparation of local disaster management action plans at union, upazila and district levels.
  • Maintain coordination with line departments / agencies, NGOs, social organizations etc.
  • A facilitator and a depository of all Disaster Management Related Information
  • Maintain Inventory of Skilled Disaster Management Personnel
  • Monitoring unit to monitor disaster preparedness activities through district administrations

Objectives of DMB:

  • Increase awareness at all levels of society to reduce disaster risks and losses
  • Strengthen national institutional capacity for disaster management up to district, upzila and union levels
  • Establish disaster action plans in the most disaster prone districts and upazilas.
  • Enhance the knowledge and skills of key personnel having disaster management responsibilities
  • Promote proven local-level risk reduction (“proofing”) measures
  • Improve the effectiveness of warnings and warning dissemination systems

Roles and Responsibilities:

  • The main role of the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) is to provide support to disaster management decision makers, planners and practitioners at all levels in Bangladesh by acting as a small dynamic professional unit at a national level to perform specialist functions in the field of disaster preparedness, local level disaster action and contingency planning, awareness training, facilitating improved information collection.


Please visit the web portal of the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) for further details.

DDM - Department of Disaster Management


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