Bangladesh is a delta made of more than three hundred rivers. 71% of the people live in the floodplain and struggle with floods. But this time they are getting the benefits of digital Bangladesh. Now, flood forecast will be available on the mobile phones three days to three hours before the flooding.
State Minister for Water Resources, Zahid Farooq while addressing at the official inauguration ceremony on October 24, announced his plans after a year of experimental use to upgrade the technology further so that the forecast can be given 10 days before flooding.
Using this technology, it was possible to send text messages on October 20th to 3,000 locals living on the banks of the River Teesta, the minister said.
Deputy Minister for Water Resources AKM Enamul Haque Shamim, Member of Parliament for Rajbari Reserved Constituency Salma Chowdhury, Director General of Water Development Board Fazlur Rashid, Secretary General of Bangladesh Red Crescent Society Firoz Saloj and a2i Policy Advisor Anir Chowdhury were present at the inaugural function.
Google has partnered with a2i to implement this digital technology under the Water Development Board. Yossi Matias, vice president of Google, said that he joined the inaugural event from New York by using artificial intelligence for wellbeing of people.
Similarly, State Minister for Information and Communication Technology Zunaid Ahmed Palak was also present on the occasion. He said that, the service has been launched across the country after the successful piloting of the program in 38 Upazilas of 14 districts in 2020 through push-notification in digital technology of flood forecasting.
NM Zeaul Alam, Senior Secretary, Department of ICT, Mohammad Mohsin, Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief and Engineers, Department of Water Resources attended the program which was presided over by Kabir Bin Anwar, Senior Secretary, Ministry of Water Resources.