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Disaster-prone Bangladesh to relay alerts through cell phones

Staff Correspondent

Dhaka - Authorities in Bangladesh on Thursday signed an agreement with two cellphone operators to warn people of impending disasters like cyclone and floods, officials said. The agreement will now enable mobile phone users in coastal Cox's Bazar district, vulnerable to cyclones, and north-central Sirajganj, a flood-prone district during the monsoon, to see disaster forecasts on their handsets.

"The subscribers will be able to read the cell-generated automatic message on reduction of disaster risk on their phone screens," said a statement issued by the disaster management ministry after launching the project on pilot basis.

The programme will be expanded across the country through UN- sponsored Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme, said Abdur Razzaque, the food and disaster management minister.

The Disaster Management Bureau signed the agreement with the mobile phone operators - Grameenphone and state-owned Teletalk - to pilot the project for six months.

The frequency of natural calamities, including floods and cyclones, has increased because of global warming, wreaking havoc across the Ganges basin.

In the latest disaster, more than 3 million people were affected by the Cyclone Aila that pounded Bangladesh's coastal districts causing deaths of nearly 200 people in late May.

Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis live in 51 enclaves in India while India has 100 areas within Bangladesh.

The residents of these enclaves are in effect stateless and lack access to public services.

Both countries are close to a deal to exchange the bangla newspaper enclaves as part of long-standing boundary negotiations.

The census will be held over three days. It aims to find out the number of people living in the enclaves, who often have little access to schools, hospitals and other public services.

The enclaves are historical anomalies of the partition of the subcontinent in 1947.

Bangladesh Home Secretary Abdus Sobhan Sikder told the BBC that India and Bangladesh had agreed to exchange the enclaves in 1974, "but it was not implemented".

Now, the two countries are inching towards a deal to exchange these enclaves as part of their efforts to resolve their long-standing boundary issues.

The question is bangla newspaper - what will happen to the people?

The two governments say it is up to the residents to decide where they want to live.

The two countries hope to reach some sort of an agreement to exchange these enclaves during Indian Prime Minister bangla newspaper Manmohan Singh's visit to Dhaka in September.