Thursday, November 22, 2007

Bangladesh Cyclone Sidr Update


22nd November 2007 (updated from 20th Nov 2007)



Majeda Begum and the shelter fashioned from materials from her wind-damaged house, Chari Para, Kalapara. Photo – Amin Drik/Concern, Nov 07• The current death toll after Cyclone Sidr has been put at 2982 by the government while the armed forces say it is 3167. Thousands are still missing and it is unofficially forecasted that the dead and missing will be over 10,000.

• According to government updates, over 4 million people of over 1.5 million families have been affected in 141 upazilas. Over 3 million houses have been totally destroyed and 6 million houses partially damaged, at least 1475 tubewells damaged. Over 8000 educational institutions have completely destroyed.

• Over 2.6 million hectares of crops have been damaged or totally destroyed.

• About a hundred thousand hectares of the Sundarbans forest has been damaged. A potion of this forest that has been totally damaged will not re-grow while the areas partially damaged will re-grow.

• Road communication is gradually improving. There is shortage of fresh water overall and of food and shelter.

Narrative

Country Level Update


Cyclone Sidr on the 15th November caused nightmare in Bangladesh. Ripping through the south western coast killing thousands of people, demolishing houses, crops, livestock left a trail of devastation over thousands of square kilometres. The winds reached 240km per hour hitting the coast at 7.30 pm on 15th November and cutting off all communications and utility services across the country.

Despite evacuation of hundreds of people, the country still suffered a high number of deaths. As of 22nd November, The current death toll after Cyclone Sidr has been put at 2982 by the government while the armed forces say it is 3167. Thousands are still missing and it is unofficially forecasted that the dead and missing will be over 10,000.

According to government updates, over 4 million people of over 1.5 million families have been affected in 141 upazilas. Over 3 million houses have been totally destroyed, 6 million houses partially damaged and at least at least 1475 tube-wells damaged. Over 8000 educational institutions have been destroyed. Dead bodies are still being collected and in many areas mass burials have had to be carried out without proper religious rites. It is reported that there is stench of rotting bodies and animal carcasses in the most hard hit areas. Road communication is improving. There is shortage of fresh water overall and of food and shelter.

About a hundred thousand hectares of the Sundarbans forest has been damaged. A portion of this forest that has been totally damaged will not re-grow while the areas partially damaged will re-grow.


Emergency Interventions


The government has sanctioned funds for housing in the cyclone hit areas, priority is being given to Patuakhali, Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Barisal, Barguna, Jhalakati, Bhola, Madaripur, Gopalganj, Shariatpur, Khulna and Satkhira. Furthermore the government will be giving VGF cards to 2.5 million families from the 1st of December. Over 730 medical teams are working in these affected areas. The armed forces are working with the government to provide relief for the people, and restore the utilities and communications. Dry food is being provided, however, many areas are still hard to reach and these people are facing acute crisis of food and fresh drinking water.

The international community continues to pledge more aid for the cyclone-hit victims. World Bank alone has promised $250 million in aid. Most of the small and local NGOs are also mobilising their own resources to do as much as they can for the cyclone victims. For example Concern’s partner organisations such as Sangram and Speed Trust have aided in rescue operations, mobilised local people to take care of mass burials, distributed dry food and other food rations for some families to address immediate food crisis. These small NGOs also arranged for transport of injured persons to nearest places for medical aid.


Concern Worldwide Response


Concern Worldwide, Bangladesh has deployed Concern staff and partner organisation staff to assess the extent of the disaster and identify the areas and communities which need help acutely, keeping in mind the need to avoid duplication with relief operations by other NGOs.

Concern with funding from ECHO (Euro 580,000) and Concern General Donations (Euro 116,123) has started relief operations in Barguna and Patuakhali districts for 26,000 extreme poor families. Families have been identified and procurement of goods is on-going. It has been estimated that over 250 thousand families have been affected in these two districts. Concern sets priority to assist those families who have the least coping capacity and in areas where the response by other organisations may be limited. The relief package being given includes both food and non-food material (see details in Map). The relief package fixed according to international Sphere Standards will provide food for 15 days for each family. The relief operation will be implemented through three partner organisations – Speed Trust (Patuakhali) , Dhaka Ahsania Mission- DAM (Barguna) and Sangram (Barguna).

Details of working location and number of families to be covered
















Concern has also applied to Irish Aid for Euro 100,000 in funds and is planning another longer term project incorporating both relief and rehabilitation interventions for the cyclone hit families. This proposal will be finalised by Saturday.

2 comments:

HASAN said...

we are some young student want to work with concern Bangladesh,

Samia said...

Concern Worldwide,Bangladesh's activities is a great purpose.Thanks for sharing with us.
You might need: Population of Bangladesh