Bangladesh coastal residents at risk from lack of storm shelters

06 Sep 2010 21:22:00 GMT
Written by: AlertNet correspondent

By Syful Islam

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AlertNet) - Elevated concrete storm shelters, built along Bangladesh's coast, have over the decades dramatically reduced the once catastrophic number of people killed by cyclones in the low-lying country.

But population growth, poor maintenance of some of the existing shelters and a lack of funding means the country today has inadequate shelters to protect all 7.8 million Bangladeshis most at risk during cyclones, officials say.

With the monsoon season now underway, people living in disaster-prone coastal districts are worried that if cyclones or other large storm surges hit this year, they could carry huge costs in terms of lives and livelihoods.

"People are at high risk, especially those who live close to the sea. Until and unless adequate numbers of shelter centres are built, they will remain at risk," said Mokhlesur Rahman, the nation's disaster management secretary.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Disaster Management, the country's 16 coastal districts have 2,853 storm shelter centres, 262 of which are now unusable. To adequately protect the coastal population, the country needs another 2,500 shelters, Rahman said.

"It is impossible to give them shelter with the small number of (existing) shelter centres. But we can't build adequate centres due to lack of funding," he said.

New shelters, capable of protecting hundreds of residents each, cost at least $285,000 per shelter, he said, and the government is turning to donor countries for assistance. So far, the country has raised enough funds to begin construction of 482 additional shelters, he said.

Storm shelter centres - large, elevated concrete structures built near the coast and often used day to day as schools or other public spaces - are an essential part of Bangladesh's disaster preparedness, along with early warning systems.

SHELTERS THE ONLY OPTION

In a region where many people, particularly the poorest, live in flimsy one-story structures, the shelters offer the only real chance of surviving serious cyclones, tsunamis and other disasters.

Bangladesh's worst-ever cyclone, in 1991, killed 138,000 people and left as many as 10 million homeless. But the death toll was far less than from a smaller storm in 1970 that killed 300,000 people before the storm shelter network was built.

Since that time, the shelters have dramatically reduced Bangladesh's loss of life from cyclones. Cyclone Sidr in 2007 officially killed 3,447 people, though some aid agencies believe the number may have reached 5,000 to 10,000. Cyclone Aila, which hit southern Bangladesh in 2009, killed 300 people, destroyed the homes of about 87,000 people and wiped out 4,000 kilometres of roads and embankments, many of which are still being rebuilt.

Following the 1991 cyclone, a survey headed Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, a professor at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, recommended construction of 4,000 additional storm shelter centres. After Cyclone Sidr hit in 2007, that recommendation was reviewed by another committee headed by the then-secretary of the works ministry. That committee suggested the government construct at least 2,000 more shelter centres. But it has failed to do so, citing a lack of funds.

Residents of the coastal areas most in need of shelters say that failure is putting large numbers of lives at risk.

TOO FAR AWAY?

Ripon Hosen, a boatman from Chalkbara village in Satkhira district - one of the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Aila - said that the nearest shelter centre for his family is two kilometres from their house.

"On the day Aila struck, we ran to the elevated embankments, seeing that the water level was rising unusually. It was not possible for us to reach the shelter centre" in time, he said.

Others, who failed to reach the storm centres or the elevated embankments, "were washed away by the high tide," he said.

The area, with a population of 42,000, currently has six shelter centres capable of holding about 3,000 people, Hosen said.

"We need at least 30 more shelter centres to accommodate all," agreed G.M. Kamrul Islam, a small businessman in Khalishabunia village, in the same area. "Had Aila hit at night instead of in daylight, at least three-quarters of the people here might have been killed."

On that day, "I never saw such water rising in my life. Though the meteorology office reported a danger signal of 12 (high on the scale), we did not take it seriously because we are familiar with storms from childhood. After Aila, now we become scared even if the danger signal is at 3 or 4," he said.

Khulna and Satkhira districts, considered some of the country's most storm-vulnerable areas, have only 77 and 65 working shelter centres respectively. Bhola, a large southern island, has 417 by comparison, government figures show.

Hasan Mehedi, chief executive of Humanitywatch, a non-profit rights group in Khulna, and someone who works with Aila victims, said the number of storm shelter centres in the region is very inadequate to meet emergency needs.

"None of the storm shelter centres can accommodate more than 500. Most of the coastal people in Khulna need shelter during disasters. So, the existing shelter centres can save only a very small portion of the total population of the region," he said.

Some of the shelters now in place also are suffering from age and lack of repair.

Rashid Ahmed, a villager in Bashkhali sub-district under the Chittagong district, said the storm shelter centre in the Kadamrasul area has developed several large cracks and become unusable after it was not repaired.

He estimated that of 116 storm shelter centres in the area, 60 were not functioning effectively because of lack of maintenance.

Ahmed said that the lack of shelters threatened around 600,000 people in the sub-district. About 42,000 people there were killed during the devastating 1991 cyclone.

Syful Islam is a senior reporter with The New Nation newspaper in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

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