Wrath of poseidon

 

 

It was not mere coincidence that while Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) was predicting grave danger to the Sunderban delta region in its annual report in Washington, some 10,000 km away, people around the Sunderbans were actually living it out. Soldiers and relief workers have raced to get aid to the millions left destitute by the cyclone in Bangladesh, where the official death toll has topped 3,400 and is expected to rise to 10,000 in all certainty. Millions are in urgent need of food and water in southern and southeastern Bangladesh, one of the poorest areas of the world, which was swept through by tropical cyclone Sidr last week. The government called in the military to help but with roads blocked or simply gone, the relief operation was still struggling. More than 3.1 million people in 28 districts were directly affected by the cyclone. The government estimates around 1m homes have been fully or partially destroyed. An estimated 760,000 acres of standing crops and 242,000 livestock were destroyed.

Meanwhile, aid agencies are battling to provide food, clean drinking water and shelter and prevent outbreaks of diarrhoea, cholera and other waterborne diseases. “There is a huge pile-up of debris of dead people and livestock and there are serious chances that it will trigger off a diarrhoea epidemic,” said Heather Blackwell, Country Manager for the Oxfam Great Britain Charity, while talking to TSI.

Meanwhile, aid is pouring in from across the world. The EU and UN have promised an aid of $2.2 million and $7 million whereas the governments of Britain, France, US, Germany and Spain have together promised $9 million in aid. Italy’s Roman Catholic Bishops’ conference said it would donate $2.9 million. Japan sent $318,000 in relief supplies, and the Philippines said it would provide a medical team.

Storms in Bangladesh, sitting on an enormous river delta, kill large numbers of people every year. In 1991 a cyclone killed about 140,000 people around the city of Chittagong. This time around, “the government early warning system helped to save many lives, but could not prevent the damage to property,” said Mr Mostafa Kamal, Dy Secretary General of Bangladesh Red Crescent, while talking to TSI. Some fishermen however complained that warnings given by the meteorological office were confusing, and that as a result many at sea were unsure what to make of them.