Flood-hit people should get insurance coverage, roundtable says

Bangladesh should introduce the concept of insurance for victims of natural disaster as the country often faces natural calamities. Also, the government should provide subsidies as the affected people cannot pay the premium, speakers at a roundtable observed on Sunday. 

Stakeholders said although the country has achieved a lot of success in disaster management, people of the fringe areas are still the worst sufferers of natural disasters.
Prothom Alo, in association with Oxfam, organised the roundtable at Karwan Bazar’s CA Bhaban, on introducing insurance in disaster risk reduction.
Additional secretary of disaster management and relief ministry Md Moazzem Hossain has said there has been a paradigm shift in the concept of disaster management as more priority is given to pre-disaster risk management nowadays.
About subsidising the premium from the government, Moazzem said the non-government stakeholders should think about it alongside the government to help poor people pay premium.
About the subsidy on premium, Bangladesh Television’s Rezaul Karim Siddique said the fund can be transferred from other sectors as Tk 30 billion agriculture subsidy remained unused last year.
Chief executive officer and managing director of Pragati Insurance Company Limited Md Rezaul Karim said that the government should take initiative for nationwide disaster insurance programme as the private sector cannot undertake such a huge task.
World Food Programme’s Md Siddiqul Islam Khan stressed the need for an awareness campaign on natural disaster insurance from community to institute level.
United Nation Development Programme’s (UNDP) Palash Mandal called for making the forecast system of natural disaster more effective so that farmers can prepare themselves in advance.
Managing director and chief executive officer of Green Delta Insurance Company Limited (GDIC) Farzanah Chowdhury said bringing every farmer under insurance coverage will help the country in achieving Sustainable Development Goals.
Oxfam’s senior programme officer Kazi NMN Azam said they are running a project of flood insurance in Sirajganj and Gaibandha districts and the project is likely to start in Kurigram.
Hasina Begum, one of the beneficiaries of the project said she repaired her home damaged by floods and reared a goat by the money she received from the insurance.
Another beneficiary, Lovely Begum, said that they face procrastination in getting money and urged the authorities to disburse the amount immediately after flood.
Dhaka University’s professor of sociology department Mahbuba Nasrin, Pragati Life Insurance managing director and CEO MJ Azim, Insurance Development and Regulatory Authority’s (IDRA) member Md Mosharraf Hossain, Institute of Water Modeling’s executive director M Monowar Hossain, Bangladesh Meteorological Department’s project director Shameem Hasan Bhuiyan, Flood forecasting and warning department’s executive engineer Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan, Oxfam’s economic justice and resilience manager Md Khalid Hossain and Pioneer Insurance Company Limited’s managing director and chief executive officer Md Monirul Islam, also spoke at the roundtable.
Prothom Alo associate editor Abdul Quayum moderated the programme.