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FAO News Video: Acting early to mitigate floods in Bangladesh

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through a data-driven process called Anticipatory Action, systematically links early warnings to actions designed to protect families and their assets ahead of a hazard. FAO’s Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) System translates warnings into actions to reduce the impact of specific disaster events. It focuses on consolidating available forecasting information and putting plans in place to make sure FAO acts when a warning is at hand.

Country Bangladesh

Duration 3m41s

Edit Version International

Video Type Video News Release (VNR)

Date 05/28/2021

File size 405.96 MB

Unique ID UF2T8U

All editorial uses permitted

Production details and shotlist

UNFAO Source FAO Video

Shotlist Gaibandha district, Northwest Bangladesh, 1 September 2020

1. Female farmer, Morjina Begum, scooping animal feed into bowl

2. Female farmer, Morjina Begum, cleaning trough, surrounded by her cows

3. Female farmer, Morjina Begum, putting a rope around a goat’s neck

4. A man and a boy carrying a goat tied onto a stick

5. Aerial shot of flooded fields and villages

6. Female farmer, Morjina Begum, pulling a goat away from yard

7. Various aerial shot of damaged riverbank

8. A goat being carried on a stick

Kurigram district, Northwest Bangladesh, 6 September 2020

9. Aerial shot of farmers herding livestock in a field

10. A FAO staff talking to a female cattle farmer in her yard, cows in the background

11. A female cattle farmer scooping animal feed into a bucket

Gaibandha district, Northwest Bangladesh, 1 September 2020

12. Aerial shot of flooded area

Kurigram district, Northwest Bangladesh, 6 September 2020

13. Riverbank showing signs of severe erosion

Gaibandha district, Northwest Bangladesh, 1 September 2020

14. Various of a female farmer mixing animal feed in a metal bowl

Kurigram district, Northwest Bangladesh, 6 September 2020

15. Aerial shot of a farmer feeding cows in backyard

Gaibandha district, Northwest Bangladesh, 1 September 2020

16. Close up of Morjina Begum scooping animal feed from a bag

17. Medium shot of Morjina Begum pouring feed into a bowl of water

18. Morjina Begum pouring prepared animal feed into feeding trough, cows standing around her

19. Close up of cows eating

20. SOUNDBITE (Bengali), Morjina Begum, Livestock farmer: “The feed was really helpful. Without this feed our cows could not survive.

21. Morjina begum stroking one of her cows as they eat

22. SOUNDBITE (Bengali), Morjina Begum, Livestock farmer: “We are getting milk from them, they are healthy now.”

23. Morjina Begum giving milk to her child

24. SOUNDBITE (Bengali), Morjina Begum, Livestock farmer, “Before, the value of this cow only 20,000 taka (236 USD). But now it’s worth 40,000 taka (472 USD).”

25. Various of Morjina Begum making fire for cooking

26. SOUNDBITE (Bengali), Morjina Begum, Livestock farmer: “My children are also getting the benefits. They are drinking the milk.”

27. Morjina Begum tending to her child

28. SOUNDBITE (Bengali), Morjina Begum, Livestock farmer: “They [my children] are getting the nutrition.”

29. Aerial shot of cows eating in yard, farmers cleaning around them

30. Low hovering drone shot of damaged jute field after floods receded

31. Aerial shot of female farmer, Munni Akhter, cleaning her damaged field after the floods

32. Female farmer, Munni Akhter, and FAO staff walking through the village

33. Various of Munni Akhter tossing nuts next to an airtight storage drum in her house

34. Munni taking off the lid of the storage drum and pouring nuts inside

35. Slow motion shot from inside the drum, nuts being poured into drum

Kurigram district, Northwest Bangladesh, 6 September 2020

36. Moving aerial shot of farmers planting field

37. Zoom-in aerial shot of rice farmers working their field

38. Resident of Kurigram, Kokila Akther, pouring rice into storage drum, a child by her side

39. Kokila Akther feeding her son with rice

40. SOUNDBITE (Bengali) Kokila Akhter, Resident in Kurigram: “I stored safe water in the drum for drinking and cooking. Because I drank safe water, it helped me stay healthy during my pregnancy.”

41. Kokila Akhter’s husband, Samiul Islam, and his child on his shoulder

42. Aerial shot of women feeding cows in back yard, cows eating from large troughs

43. Moving aerial shot of elevated road with receding flood waters on each side, villagers milling about

44. Arial shot of high road, river and surrounding floods

Script The frequency and intensity of climate-driven natural disasters and conflicts is increasing. Natural disasters are occurring nearly five times as often compared to 40 years ago, with great costs to local economies, livelihoods and lives. Acting early before a disaster happens, or has reached its peak, is crucial to save lives and protect livelihoods from immediate shocks and to preserve longer term development gains by increasing the resilience of local communities over time.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), through a data-driven process called Anticipatory Action, systematically links early warnings to actions designed to protect families and their assets ahead of a hazard. FAO’s Early Warning Early Action (EWEA) System translates warnings into actions to reduce the impact of specific disaster events. It focuses on consolidating available forecasting information and putting plans in place to make sure FAO acts when a warning is at hand.

For a farmer like Morjina Begum FAO Anticipatory Action intervention means that she has managed to protect her cows during monsoon floods in Northern Bangladesh. Morjina is a mother of two. And like many women in Bangladesh, she’s been raising her family’s livestock while her husband worked the land. But in July 2020, her remote village in Gaibandha district, Northwest Bangladesh, saw one of the worst monsoon floods in years. Morjina managed to save most of her animals in a time when grassland was scarce and buying feed was impossible.

When early warning data showed that in Bogura, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Jamalpur and Sirajgonj districts, Jamuna river waters were rising to dangerous levels, FAO intervened and helped communities prepare. FAO quickly distributed around 75 kilos each of animal feed to over 18,000 families in the river basin. So that food security could be ensured by keeping the livestock healthy and preserving a source of income and food for farmers, even in case farmlands, or crops, could have been flooded by the river.

SOUNDBITE (Bengali), Morjina Begum, Livestock farmer: “The feed was really helpful. Without this feed our cows could not survive. We are getting milk from them, they are healthy now. Before, the value of this cow was only 20,000 taka (236 USD). But now it’s worth 40,000 taka (472 USD).”

Cows are an essential asset for the family, in the future one of them might be sold to buy new farmland. In the meantime, they are providing healthy food for the children.

SOUNDBITE (Bengali), Morjina Begum, Livestock farmer: “My children are also getting the benefits. They are drinking the milk. They are getting the nutrition.”

FAO also helped farmers protect their remaining food and seeds from the rising waters. With support from the UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund, farmers like Munni Akhter in the Kurigram district, received airtight plastic drums to store their most valuable possessions such as seeds, grains, drinkable water and farming tools.

Because the drums could float, families could easily bring them along when they had to evacuate. The nuts and grains protected in the drum provided food while they sheltered on higher ground.

SOUNDBITE (Bengali) Kokila Akhter, Resident in Kurigram: “I stored safe water in the drum for drinking and cooking. Because I drank safe water, it helped me stay healthy during my pregnancy.”

Anticipatory action is crucial to prevent and mitigate disaster impacts to safeguard agricultural livelihoods and food security in a more cost-effective way.

The intervention was the result of a collaboration between Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BRCS), World Food Programme (WFP), and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) funded by UN’s Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).

FAO is committed to scale-up anticipatory actions with partners across the globe.

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FAO News Video: Acting early to mitigate floods in Bangladesh

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