While the government's Comprehensive Disaster Management Programme (CDMP) is toiling to get the Disaster Management Bureau (DMB) to prepare a plan incorporating its revised Technical Project Proposal (TPP) for foreign funds, no tangible progress is yet to be seen.

The CDMP is unaware that most work for this plan was done in a European Commission (EC)-sponsored report titled 'Bangladesh Earthquake Risk Management Programme'.

The bureau started the National Earthquake Management Plan in November 2005, as a sub-plan of the National Disaster Plan to respond to and reduce risks of earthquakes.

While the government's progress in preparing the plan is dallying because of 'resource constraints,' the EC, World Food Programme (WFP) and the Japanese government have shown interest in funding quake disaster management.

The EC has agreed in principle to allocate a fund of nine million Euros, but CDMP would have to revise the present TPP incorporating the earthquake management plan, for funds to be released through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

Seismic experts express fear of impending tragedies in Dhaka with its innumerable worn-out and faulty structures constructed in violation of building codes and approved designs.

"The report should have been the baseline to expedite the preparation of earthquake management plan," said an expert involved with preparing the report sponsored by the EC in 2004.

It seems that neither is the Disaster Management Bureau, the CDMP nor the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management (MFDM) aware of the report, he said.

The EC had sent a team here that worked on earthquake risk management from January to March 2004 and also employed a consultancy firm, Parsons Brinckerhoss Ltd. for the job, and had had a series of sessions with 75 agencies and stakeholders to prepare the disaster management report, he added.

The CDMP Team Leader Ian Rector said that he was not aware of the EC report, but would take the report into account when preparing the plan. "We want to bring in everyone concerned to contribute to the making of the plan," he said.

"A serious lack of co-ordination between the CDMP and the MFDM is the reason behind the slow progress of the disaster management programme and plan," said another source.

"Though the secretary to the MFDM is the ex-officio National Project Director of the CDMP, the Team Leader carries out the responsibilities of CDMP," he said.

"Some administrative problems within the CDMP is causing the delay in settling the plan and revising the TPP for release of foreign funds," said Abdur Rashid Sarkar MFDM's secretary, when his attention was drawn to the matter.

Responding to 'lack of co-ordination', Rector said that it was the view of a few individuals who have their own agenda. "We are not here for our own benefit but to support the ministry," he said.

"The EC will soon sign a Contract of Agreement with the UNDP for fund allocation, that will be disbursed through the UNDP and utilised for three components including Earthquake Preparedness, Livelihood Security and Information Management within the CDMP programmes," Rector said.

"There will be a meeting on June 7 to review the progress of the revised TPP and earthquake management plan," the MFDM secretary said.

"It will be extremely difficult to cope with an earthquake disaster in Dhaka," he added.

The city is most vulnerable in the event of an earthquake, as it is densely populated and concentrated with innumerable concrete structures built without maintaining proper building codes, said Abu Sadeque, a DMB director and senior vice-president of Bangladesh Earthquake Society.

Abdul Latif Khan, National Expert on Preparedness and Rescue at the CDMP, said that the government of has allocated Tk 36 crore and the Japanese government also has granted another Tk 36 crore to procure heavy and small rescue and search equipment.

Like the cyclone preparedness plan, National Earthquake Management Plan will have provision for a pool of earthquake response volunteers helped by Dhaka City Corporation to work at ward levels under the ward disaster management committee, said DMB sources.

It proposed that the management plan would consist of 10 striking units in six divisional towns, and the planning ministry has approved two for Dhaka, one for Sylhet and one for Chittagong on priority basis, sources said.

Each of the 215-member units will comprise of members from all the agencies concerned and standby to act instantly under the co-ordination and command of the DMB in the event of an earthquake.