Forecast Based Financing for Heatwaves

Interview with Md. Ziaul Haque

I recently interviewed Md. Ziaul Haque, a unit-level field officer at BDRCS' Dhaka City Unit. In the City Unit Md. Haque manages the overall implementation of projects that this BDRCS Unit is tasked with. His role is to also visit the field often to make sure everything is being done properly.

During my interview with him, he talked about the simulation heatwave that happened in 2021 and what its results were. He highlighted how their target group then were rickshaw pullers, slum dwellers, hawkers, etc., and stated that they are still continuing with the same target group as these are the people who are the most vulnerable during a heatwave. He also explained that during this simulation beneficiaries were given cash grants - both conditional and unconditional - of 4500 BDT to minimize the impact of the heatwave and announcements were also made on loudspeakers informing people to stay at home and not venture out during the heatwave.

At the same time Md, Haque discussed the issues faced during the heatwave Early Action Protocol (EAP) simulation. He also stated that BDRCS and the Dhaka City Unit had made many efforts to address these issues while training volunteers who help them in this program so that they don't come up if the EAP has to be implemented this year during the heatwave season. Some of these issues were people's perception of heatwaves - many of them don't consider heatwaves to be a disaster and just take it to be a part of the climate, most people don't also understand that heatwaves can negatively impact their health and can cause serious issues; and the lack of resources - Md. Haque elucidated the fact that the demand from the people to be included as beneficiaries is not possible due to the low supply of cash from BDRCS, he stated that more funds are needed to increase the scope of this program. Lastly, he also talked about opportunities to improve equipment, facilities, etc. for volunteers on the ground.

Being surprised at hearing that people don't take heatwaves as seriously as other disasters such as floods and cyclones, I also interviewed a few beneficiaries of the heatwave simulation along with a few nonbeneficiaries. I later also interviewed Mr. Musharaf Hussain, Councillor of Ward 45, Dhaka City to learn more about why people are not heatwaves seriously and what the Bangladeshi Government can do to solve this issue. More on these interviews in the next post!