DanChurchAid
Bangladesh
Disaster response to the cyclone Sidr in Bangladesh
The meteorological departments in the area sent out warnings of a 'very severe cyclonic storm' as it moved northwards towards Bangladesh.
These warnings were spread to the local population in the delta area of Bangladesh. Some chose to remain in their houses, but around two million people had already been evacuated to shelters by the time the cyclone hit the delta on the night of 15th November with winds around 215 km per hour, and gusts up to 250 km per hour. The cyclonic winds were accompanied by heavy rainfall, and followed by a tidal surge some three to five meters high.
| Stories of cyclone survivors |
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Worst hit area
Sarankhola sub-division, situated in the lower delta region of Bangladesh, was one of the worst hit areas. This flat low-lying area is characterized by rice fields (only one crop a year), many trees, the wide river Baleshwar and the closeness to the mangrove forest Sundarban. The Bay of Bengal is only some 40 km downstream.
People in the area are mostly farmers, but along the river - outside the two-three meter high embarkment - there are also a number of fishing communities, who fish from rather small boats in the river, or join as crew on bigger ocean trawlers to fish in the Bay of Bengal.
The mangrove is an additional source of income, as many of the farmers and fishermen in the area traditionally have been going into the Sundarban mangrove to collect honey, firewood and sundari-leaves (for thatching).
This was stricktly speaking illegal, as the Sundarban is a protected area, being the largerst mangrove in the world, a nature reserve and the home of numerous animals and birds - the Royal Bengal Tiger being the most famous.
Still, until the cyclone Sidr struck, the government was not strict in enforcing this law. But after Sidr hit the area and destroyed around one third of the trees in the mangrove forest, the government is now trying to enforce the ban on entry into the mangrove, and thus this additional source of income is now (more or less) out of reach for the fisherfolks and farmers in the adjacent areas. The large majority of the population are - like in Bangladesh as a whole - Muslims. In the last election the rather conservative Jamat Islami became the largest party in the area.
Relief
When the news of the death and destruction in the path of the cyclone reached the public, there was a wave of sympathy from all corners of Bangladesh as well as from the world at large - the Arab countries gave particularly generous relief packages. The army rushed into the area with immediate relief and first aid, to secure safety, as well as to clear the roads. As soon as the roads were cleared and it was possible to cross the many rivers with boats, relief aid started to pour in. The local authorities did their best to coordinate all the relief aid of the many organisations and private donors - most of whom had no local contacts in or knowledge of the area - to make sure that all villages were covered and the aid distributed more or less evenly.
DSK and DCA efforts
One of the NGOs in Bangladesh who reacted immediately by sending medical teams and relief aid to the worst hit areas was Dushtha Shasthya Kendra (DSK). DSK started its work among the poor in the slum areas of Dhaka after another natural catastrophy - the devastating floods in 1988 - with health and sanitation as its cental issues. Today DSK work with long-term development in the slum areas in the cities Dhaka, Chittagong and Khulna, as well as in six other districs of Bangladesh with health and family planning; water, sanitation and hygiene; micro-financing; agriculture and reduction of illiteracy. And of course continue their work with relief aid after natural catastrophies. The focus of all DSK work is the poorest and most vulnerable sections of the population - especially the women. DSK uses a rights based and participatory approach in their work to create strong local organizations in order to achieve their goal: a Bangladesh based on social justice, where people can live a dignified and safe life. For more details, see: www.dskbangladesh.org
The Executive Director of DSK, Dibalok Singha, told us how was DSK working with relief and rehabilitation in the affected areas.
"Immidiately after the cyclone DSK sent its medical relief team to the worst affected areas where we assisted the many victims from the government health camps. Initially we used our own relief funds saved by members of the organisation. Soon after the immediate relief work had started DSK was contacted by DCA who were looking for ways and means to provide relief to and rehabilitation of the cyclone victims. We decided to enter into a partnership and sent an application to the European Community Humanitarian Office (ECHO) for relief funds which we got in January 2008, and thus we could initiate rehabilitation work on a larger scale.
Our first people arrived in the area the 18. November 2007, - on the third day after the cyclone struck. We were one of the first NGOs on the scene. The district collector advised us to start working in Tafalbari and surrounding villages, where we later established an office. Our three medical teams administered first aid and medical care from the government medical camps, but also made an overall assessment of the situation. We talked to the villagers to get their priorities for what they needed and who needed help most. It was the villagers themselves who made the list of those who had lost everything, of the hardcore poor, of female-headed household, of children who had lost their parents, of the old and disabled who no longer had caregivers etc. All this information was used to produce - together with DCA - the application for relief funds from ECHO. When the money from ECHO came through, DSK together with DCA were able to initiate a larger relief and rehabilitation package.
First DSK distributed relief packages containing food for three weeks - including drinking water, as well as blankets. Around 3.400 families received these relief packes from us, and our medical teams treated over 2.500 patients, mostly wounds and injuries - especially under the foot. We also distributed some 500 school bag kits, so that the kids could start their schooling again, and three schools were given excercise books and pensils for 2.000 children. DSK/DCA were not the only ones providing relief in the area. Besides the efforts of the army and the administration, Oxfam, Care, Muslim Aid and others were also making a lot of contributions.
As for rehabilitation, the farming communities prioritzed clean water and sanitation, while the fishing communities wanted boats and nets as their first priority. Because funds were limited DSK decided - after consultation with the community - that those who were covered by the water-sanitation program would in principle not be covered by the boat-net program, and vice versa.
Water-sanitation
The water conditions in the area are complicated by the fact that there is high content of salt in the soil and arsenic in the water. There is also a very thick rocky layer some 10-15 meters under the surface, and it is very difficult to bore through this rocky layer down to clean ground water. It is possible to make shallow tube wells, but the water in these wells is only for domestic use, not for drinking. As ground water is not easily available, one method to get clean and safe drinking water is to collect rain water in reservoirs, and then filter this water to make it potable. A simple cleaning procedure is also to add drops of clorine. In the water-sanitation project we have:
- cleaned 15 ponds
- intalled 12 shallow tube wells with hand pumps - one for every 20 families
- constructed three ponds with filter - one for every 100 families
- distributed 3.000 bottles of clorine, and
- constructed 900 pit-latrines - one for each household in the village.
The women have also been organised into groups, partly around sanitation, partly around savings. It is also the women's groups who later will receive she-goats from DCA, which they look very much forward to. It was the women's groups who actually went around and made deals with the local contractors for the materials and the building of the pit-latrines, and in the end they were able to get them cheaper than budgetted, so what was originally budgetted to 700 laterines, became 900 latrines!
Fishing boats and nets
The fishermen put their livelihood as first priority, and we discussed with the fishing communities the best way to do this. They wanted fishing boats and nets, and there was a lot of discussion on the type of fishing boats to be constructed, how ownership should be organised etc. We told the fisherfolks that we had a certain amount of money available for this purpose, and then suggested a cooperative model of ownership. The trawler owners, where many of the fishermen previously had worked as crew, were at first quite upset, and the fishermen uncertain, but in the end an agreement was found. The boats should be of wood and traditional shape, locally made, without engine - although they were all eager to get an engine, but the budget could not accomodate that expense - and the boat should be owned by three fishermen working as a cooperative. The conditons were that the boat and net could not be sold, not transferred and not mortgaged. If one member of the team left, the cooperative would appoint a new member.
The local fishermen then organised to have wooden boats made - and there was plenty of wood available after the cyclone! - and even if we first had budgeted with 88 boats, the fishermen proved so efficient in organising and bargaining that actually some 120 boats were made for the money available. Then nets were distributed to them, and also to the fishermen whose boats could be repaired, but who had lost their equipment. Now these boats are plowing the waves of the river and the fishermen has again been able to restore their livelihood - fishing!
Disaster preparedness saves many lives
Bangladesh is located in a disaster-prone zone. The two huge rivers Ganges and Bhramaputra run through the lowlying areas of Bangladesh and cause annual inundation bringing fertile sediments to the plains, but also frequent floods, causing destruction. The Bay of Bengal generates storms which regularly hit Orissa and West Bengal in India and Bangladesh, leaving behind devastated areas. Some of these storms reach cyclone intensity. There has been three devasting cyclones hitting Bangladesh the last 40 years. All of them have caused more or less the same material damage, but there has been a dramatic fall in the number of people killed. The 1970-cyclone killed around 300.000 people, the one in 1991 killed 190.000, but the one in 2007 - Sidr - killed 'only' some 10.000 persons. This dramatic fall in fatalities is the result of improved warning system, improved shelters, and better organisation of relief work and of course the communities themselves have been better prepared. The Bangladeshi government as well as various national and international organisations have contributed to this impressive statistics, which shows that disaster preparedness is really important and saves many lives. Still, there is room for much improvement especially at local level, thus disaster preparedness should be incorporated as an integral element of the general development efforts by all parties concerned.
By Viggo Brun, vbr.india@dca.dk
Asia
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