Contents: Preface. Overview of keynote papers: 1. An overview of the impact of floods in Bangladesh and options for mitigation/A.N.H. Akhtar Hossain. 2. Flood disaster management and risk reduction in Bangladesh/Muhammad Saidur Rahman. 3. The Impact of floods on the economy of Bangladesh/Wahiduddin Mahmud. Key note papers: 1. The impact of floods on Bangladesh and options for mitigation: an overview/A.N.H. Akhtar Hossain. 2. Flood disaster management and risk reduction in Bangladesh/Muhammad Saidur Rahman. 3. The Impact of floods on the economy of Bangladesh/Wahiduddin Mahmud. Papers of working group I: 4. Flood forecasting, warning and response system/Md. Salim Bhuiyan. 5. Weather forecasting for flood disaster mitigation/Md. Akram Hossain. 6. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) in flood management/Emaduddin Ahmad, S.M. Mahbubur Rahman and Jalaluddin Md. Abdul Hye. 7. Flood disaster management in Dhaka city/Muhammad Abul Hasnat. 8. Flood disaster management in the affected areas/Md. Saeedur Rahman. 9. The application of remote sensing and GIS in flood mapping/Abdul Halim Howlader and A.Z. Md. Zahedul Islam. 10. Flood disaster management/Ministry of Food and Disaster Management. 11. Emergency food storage and supplies/Ilahi Dad Khan. 12. Regional cooperation in flood management/Tauhidul Anwar Khan. 13. The impact of floods on flood control and drainage infrastructures and mitigation measures/Giasuddin Ahmed Choudhury. 14. Guidelines on flood disaster management/Armed Forces Division. 15. BRAC's experience in flood disaster management/Nasima Akter. Papers of working Group 2: 16. The impact of floods on railways and mitigation options/Yousuf Ali Mridha and Syed Kamrul Hassan. 17. The impact of floods on major highways and mitigation options/A.K.M. Faizur Rahman. 18. The impact of floods on rural roads and proposed mitigation options/Md. Shahidul Hassan. 19. The impact of floods on air transport and mitigation options/M. Obaidur Rahman. 20. The impact of floods on waterways and mitigation options/N.C. Sarker. 21. The impact of floods on urban transportation and mitigation options/Ashraful Alam Sarkar and A.T.M. Helaluddin Nagari. Papers of working group 3: 22. Floods, 2004 and the industries of Bangladesh/Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry. 23. The impact of floods on agriculture and mitigation options/Md. Tariq Hassan and Md. Wasiuzzaman Akand. 24. Options for flood risks and damage reduction in the fisheries sector/Md. Giasuddin Khan and Syed Arif Azad. 25. The impact of floods in livestock and mitigation options by the Department of Livestock Services/Md. Abul Kalam. 26. The impact of floods on dairy farming and mitigation options/Mohammad Younus Miah. 27. The impact of floods on the garments industry and mitigation options/Research Cell, BGMEA. Papers of working group 4: 28. The impact of floods on Dhaka city's water supply, sanitation and drainage and mitigation options/A.N.H. Akhtar Hossain, Kazi Ali Azam and Md. Serajuddin. 29. The impact of floods on rural water supply and sanitation and mitigation options/Amanullah-al-Mahmood. 30. The impact of floods on the environment and mitigation options/Khan M. Ibrahim Hossain and Mostafa Kamal Farooque. 31. Global climate change and floods in Bangladesh: mitigation options/Mahfuzul Haque. 32. Mitigating the impact of floods on cities through land use planning/K.M. Maniruzzaman. 33. The impact of floods on forest resources and mitigation options/M. Anwarul Islam. 34. The impact of floods on housing and flood shelters and mitigation options by the PWD/A.F.M. Manzurul Islam. 35. The impact of floods and national housing policy/A.T.M. Ataur Rahman. 36. The implications of floods for Dhaka city planning/Md. Shahid Alam. Papers of working group 5: 37. The impact of floods on primary education and mitigation options/Aslam Alam. 38. The impact of floods on health and hygiene in rural and urban areas and mitigation options/Md. Mizanur Rahman, Abul Kalam Azad, Syeda Badrun Nahar, Md. Anwar Ali, Mahfruz Hossain, Yasmin Jahan, Rowshan Ara and Md. Mozammel Hoque. 39. The implications of floods for law and order/Benazir Ahmed. 40. The impact of floods on women and children in Bangladesh/Yeameen Akbory. 41. Community participation in flood management/Riaz Khan, Ahmadul Hassan and S.H.M. Fakhruddin. Papers of working group 6: 42. The macroeconomic impact of floods on Bangladesh: some thoughts and recommendations/Quazi Mesbahuddin Ahmed, M. Ismail Hossain and Bazlul Haque Khondker. 43. The impact floods on the power sector and mitigation options/Syed Sarwar Hussain. 44. The impact of floods on telecommunications and mitigation options by the BTTB/Md. Monwar Hossain. 45. Mobilisation of external resources for flood rehabilitation/M.A. Muktadir Mazumder. 46. The impact of floods on the power sector and mitigation options: BPDB's perspective/Md. Abdul Muttalib. 47. The implications of floods for development initiatives/M. Fazlur Rahman, Yasmeen Parveen, Niru Shamsun Nahar, Md. Rezaul Karim Anowar Hossain, Khaleda Akhter and Gopal Chandra Sen. Annexes. Index.

"The devastation caused by the floods of 2004, along with the dislocation of population and enormous socio-economic losses, were a traumatic experience for Bangladesh. The dislocation was managed actively from government's own resources and by putting its own disaster management system into full gear. However, the international community promptly came forward to assist Bangladesh in its effort to revitalise the flood-affected sectors of the economy.

In order to assess the flood problems comprehensively, Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia directed that a National Workshop on floods be organized. The workshop took place on 7-9 September 2004 and was attended by over 900 participants. It concluded with a set of valuable recommendations on options to cover flood risks and to reduce flood damage in Bangladesh. The workshop was unanimous about formulating a pragmatic strategy and an appropriate programme that would substantially mitigate flood disasters and derive optimum dividends from such situations.

This present volume contains the proceedings and recommendations of the workshop. It has also identified a framework of implementation mechanics, specifying the appropriate implementing ministry/department/organisation/other agencies, respective resource requirements, probable development partners, corresponding time-frame and linkage chains with regard to the recommendations. An inter-ministerial committee has been formed as a follow-up measure. It is intended that this volume will be helpful for not only recording the collective wisdom in respect of the devastating floods in Bangladesh but also in implementing specific mitigating programmes/activities in this regard." (jacket)