The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Rangpur

Speakers at Chilmari upazila town in Kurigram on Thursday said that transmission of warnings during and before natural calamities including floods from radio stations on time could minimise disaster losses in remote chars in the river basins.

The observation came at a programme organised at the conference hall of Chilmari upazila parishad marking distribution of radio sets among the Union Parishad level volunteers of the disaster-prone char areas of Chilmari upazila in Kurigram district.

Eso Desh Gori (EDG), an NGO, distributed the radios among the volunteers organised by Nagorik Uddog Committee (NUC) with its Convener Abdul Kuddus Akand in the chair.

Chilmari Upazila Project Implementation Officer Yunus Ali attended as it the chief guest while representative of Action Aid Bangladesh Nur Ahmmed, Executive director of EDG Feroz Alam were present as the special guests.

Programme Officer Habibur Rahman, Programme manager Toffael Hossain and Trainer on disaster management Nur Alam spoke.

The speakers said radio is the only medium for entertainment of the people living in the char areas in river basins, where access to television is a far cry due to non-availability of electricity.

Radio, still a popular medium, can make people aware in advance about any natural calamities, they said They urged for transmission of additional programmes on disaster management to enabling char dwellers in getting access to forecasts about floods, erosion and nor'westers.

Later, the chief guest distributed radios among 16 UP level volunteers of Thanahat, Raniganj, Ostomir Char and Chilmari UPs in the upazila with a view to quickly dissemination of information to the char dwellers.