Sidr Survivors – 10 Years On

The people of Barisal division who were severely affected by Cyclone Sidr a decade ago are still suffering from the pain of loss and damage. The survivors will never forget the devastating night of November 15, 2007. But the resilient people of the southern region are winning their struggle against fateful nature and rebuilding their lives _ they are growing crops again on saline soil, even above the targeted amount, according to Department of Agricultural Extension sources _ and looking forward to better futures.

To get an update on the Sidr story ahead of the 10th anniversary of the devastating cyclone, this reporter recently visited the worst affected areas of Charkhali, Ranipur, Mendiabad, Gholkhali and Hazikhali under Mirzaganj upazila of Patuakhali district. Structural changes could be seen everywhere, but few changes were noticed in the lives of the affected villagers, who are mostly seasonal farm workers and fishermen.

Recalling that night, Mohammad Harun, a 42-year-old farm worker from Charkhali, said: “When Sidr was crossing our village with high speed winds, my wife and I saved ourselves by jumping into a ditch in the darkness. In the morning, we found a horrible scene. We gathered 27 dead bodies of our neighbours and buried them in a mass grave. A total of 99 people were killed when the cyclone hit here. We lost everything, including our house. I received only 5,000 taka from the local authorities; we did not get any help from any relief agency. However, I have turned around again on my own. I do hal-haluki (seasonal farm work and fishing).”

Mohammad Shahjahan, 50, of Ranikhali, said: “Before the cyclone hit, I was at the Payra riverside, and the tide was low. But after a few minutes, I saw the water foaming on the river. And then, the water rose over six feet. Within a moment, high winds and the storm surge threw me against a tree. My house collapsed, killing my mother and sister. The next morning, the rest of my family, along with 300 other families, took shelter on a nearby flood protection embankment.”

Mohammad Masud Hasan, 42, of the same area, said of the 300 homeless families, only 200 got support from donors, including small houses. The other 100 families left the area and no one knows where they went.

Mokim Hawladar of Ranikhali village invited this reporter to see his house that was damaged by Cyclone Sidr, and still remains unrepaired. “None helped me to repair the house,” he said. “We still feel sick when we think of the night of Sidr.”

The reporter found huge babies in the area asked them over SIDR. All of them know SIDR as ‘Ghosts’.

Taofik Ahmed, a local representative of UNICEF, said some 3,450 people were killed by Cyclone Sidr in the area. Of the victims, 70 percent were women and children. UNICEF provided cash aid of Tk 27,000 per head to 2,081 orphans and destitute children at the time, Ahmed said. The UN agency also distributed food for six months.

Marcel Ratan Guda, programme officer (disaster management) of Caritas in Barisal region, said the aid organisation gave huge support to survivors of Cyclone Sidr under its relief and rehabilitation programme.

“We gave emergency relief support to 43,170 families and livelihood support to 10,000 families at Tk 10,000 per family. We provided immediate cash-for-work support to 60,088 men for reconstructing roads and clearing fields, ponds and culverts. We also provided mid-term cash-for-work for repairing about 150 kilometres of road and re-excavating seven canals,” Guda said.

Caritas also gave TK 8,000 per family to 10,000 families for professional rehabilitation, house-repairing support (Tk 40,000 per family) to 1,900 families, and constructed 11 cyclone shelters.

 However, Gopal Sarker, president of Bangladesh Manobadhikar Journalist Forum (Barisal Division), said not all Sidr survivors have been rehabilitated properly, so many are still suffering.

“A section of non-government organisations saw Sidr rehabilitation as a profitable venture. Many of them misused the funds sanctioned by donors. Papers showing fund expenditures were made carefully, but practically, those were not transparent,” Sarker claimed. He demanded field-level investigation of Sidr funds.

Meanwhile, no official records of people and property affected by Cyclone Sidr seem to exist in regional administrative offices.     

When this reporter recently went to collect statistics on losses incurred by Sidr, no data was found anywhere, from the UNO office at Mirzaganj to the Barisal divisional commissioner’s office.

According to old newspaper reports that were based on information provided by the relevant authorities in 2007, it was found that although loss of lives were limited, the backbone of agro-economy in the region was severely affected as crop fields and ponds were flooded with saline water following storm surges, or breach of flood control embankments. Large numbers of domestic animals also perished in the cyclone and huge amounts of fishery resources were damaged. More than 150,000 families, including about 55,000 families in Patuakhali, 40,000 in Barguna, 30,000 in Pirojpur, and 25,000 in Barisal, Bhola and Jhalokati districts lost their homes in the cyclone.

When this reporter visited the UNO (upazila nirbahi officer) office at Mirzaganj on October 31, UNO Shah Mohammad Rafiqul Islam said they had no records on Sidr. At the office of the Barisal Divisional Commissioner, Additional Divisional Commissioner Mohammad Nurul Amin also said there was no data available. Amin added that the office had little space for storing records. As a result, they had to burn files from the previous 10 years.

According to previous records collected by this reporter from the then authorities, about 100 pontoons and jetties of different water transport and ferry stations and navigation signal lights were damaged or displaced in Sidr-affected areas, causing losses worth more than Tk 1 billion (100 crore). About Tk 2 billion in damages were estimated in the livestock sector, Barisal divisional livestock office sources said at the time. The divisional fishery office estimated more than Tk 15 billion damages in fish farming.

Barisal division of Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) sources had said 9,070 deep tubewells were destroyed or damaged in six districts and more than 3,500 ponds and tanks reserved for drinking water supply became polluted and unusable due to carcasses and rotten leaves blown by the cyclone. An assessment report prepared by local officials of Water Development Board said 300 kilometres of embankment were destroyed in the coastal belt.

At present, to avoid loss of lives, construction of 398 cyclone shelters cum primary schools in 12 cyclone-prone coastal districts in southern Bangladesh have been planned. A source at the Forest Research Institute in Barisal said the scenario has changed in the cyclone-hit parts of the Sundarbans after new trees have sprung up everywhere within the past 10 years. n

The writer is Staff Reporter of The Independent newspaper in Barisal.

Photos: Writer, archives.

Sidr Survivors – 10 Years On

The people of Barisal division who were severely affected by Cyclone Sidr a decade ago are still suffering from the pain of loss and damage. The survivors will never forget the devastating night of November 15, 2007. But the resilient people of the southern region are winning their struggle against fateful nature and rebuilding their lives _ they are growing crops again on saline soil, even above the targeted amount, according to Department of Agricultural Extension sources _ and looking forward to better futures. To get an update on the Sidr story ahead of the 10th anniversary of the devastating cyclone, this reporter recently visited the worst affected areas of Charkhali, Ranipur, Mendiabad, Gholkhali and Hazikhali under Mirzaganj upazila of Patuakhali district. Structural changes could be seen everywhere, but few changes were noticed in the lives of the affected villagers, who are mostly seasonal farm workers and fishermen. Recalling that night, Mohammad Harun, a 42-year-old farm worker from Charkhali, said: When Sidr was crossing our village with high speed winds, my wife and I saved ourselves by jumping into a ditch in the darkness. In the morning, we found a horrible scene. We gathered 27 dead bodies of our neighbours and buried them in a mass grave. A total of 99 people were killed when the cyclone hit here. We lost everything, including our house. I received only 5,000 taka from the local authorities; we did not get any help from any relief agency. However, I have turned around again on my own. I do hal-haluki (seasonal farm work and fishing). Mohammad Shahjahan, 50, of Ranikhali, said: Before the cyclone hit, I was at the Payra riverside, and the tide was low. But after a few minutes, I saw the water foaming on the river. And then, the water rose over six feet. Within a moment, high winds and the storm surge threw me against a tree. My house collapsed, killing my mother and sister. The next morning, the rest of my family, along with 300 other families, took shelter on a nearby flood protection embankment. Mohammad Masud Hasan, 42, of the same area, said of the 300 homeless families, only 200 got support from donors, including small houses. The other 100 families left the area and no one knows where they went. Mokim Hawladar of Ranikhali village invited this reporter to see his house that was damaged by Cyclone Sidr, and still remains unrepaired. None helped me to repair the house, he said. We still feel sick when we think of the night of Sidr. The reporter found huge babies in the area asked them over SIDR. All of them know SIDR as Ghosts. Taofik Ahmed, a local representative of UNICEF, said some 3,450 people were killed by Cyclone Sidr in the area. Of the victims, 70 percent were women and children. UNICEF provided cash aid of Tk 27,000 per head to 2,081 orphans and destitute children at the time, Ahmed said. The UN agency also distributed food for six months. Marcel Ratan Guda, programme officer (disaster management) of Caritas in Barisal region, said the aid organisation gave huge support to survivors of Cyclone Sidr under its relief and rehabilitation programme. We gave emergency relief support to 43,170 families and livelihood support to 10,000 families at Tk 10,000 per family. We provided immediate cash-for-work support to 60,088 men for reconstructing roads and clearing fields, ponds and culverts. We also provided mid-term cash-for-work for repairing about 150 kilometres of road and re-excavating seven canals, Guda said. Caritas also gave TK 8,000 per family to 10,000 families for professional rehabilitation, house-repairing support (Tk 40,000 per family) to 1,900 families, and constructed 11 cyclone shelters. However, Gopal Sarker, president of Bangladesh Manobadhikar Journalist Forum (Barisal Division), said not all Sidr survivors have been rehabilitated properly, so many are still suffering. A section of non-government organisations saw Sidr rehabilitation as a profitable venture. Many of them misused the funds sanctioned by donors. Papers showing fund expenditures were made carefully, but practically, those were not transparent, Sarker claimed. He demanded field-level investigation of Sidr funds. Meanwhile, no official records of people and property affected by Cyclone Sidr seem to exist in regional administrative offices. When this reporter recently went to collect statistics on losses incurred by Sidr, no data was found anywhere, from the UNO office at Mirzaganj to the Barisal divisional commissioners office. According to old newspaper reports that were based on information provided by the relevant authorities in 2007, it was found that although loss of lives were limited, the backbone of agro-economy in the region was severely affected as crop fields and ponds were flooded with saline water following storm surges, or breach of flood control embankments. Large numbers of domestic animals also perished in the cyclone and huge amounts of fishery resources were damaged. More than 150,000 families, including about 55,000 families in Patuakhali, 40,000 in Barguna, 30,000 in Pirojpur, and 25,000 in Barisal, Bhola and Jhalokati districts lost their homes in the cyclone. When this reporter visited the UNO (upazila nirbahi officer) office at Mirzaganj on October 31, UNO Shah Mohammad Rafiqul Islam said they had no records on Sidr. At the office of the Barisal Divisional Commissioner, Additional Divisional Commissioner Mohammad Nurul Amin also said there was no data available. Amin added that the office had little space for storing records. As a result, they had to burn files from the previous 10 years. According to previous records collected by this reporter from the then authorities, about 100 pontoons and jetties of different water transport and ferry stations and navigation signal lights were damaged or displaced in Sidr-affected areas, causing losses worth more than Tk 1 billion (100 crore). About Tk 2 billion in damages were estimated in the livestock sector, Barisal divisional livestock office sources said at the time. The divisional fishery office estimated more than Tk 15 billion damages in fish farming. Barisal division of Department of Public Health Engineering (DPHE) sources had said 9,070 deep tubewells were destroyed or damaged in six districts and more than 3,500 ponds and tanks reserved for drinking water supply became polluted and unusable due to carcasses and rotten leaves blown by the cyclone. An assessment report prepared by local officials of Water Development Board said 300 kilometres of embankment were destroyed in the coastal belt. At present, to avoid loss of lives, construction of 398 cyclone shelters cum primary schools in 12 cyclone-prone coastal districts in southern Bangladesh have been planned. A source at the Forest Research Institute in Barisal said the scenario has changed in the cyclone-hit parts of the Sundarbans after new trees have sprung up everywhere within the past 10 years. n The writer is Staff Reporter of The Independent newspaper in Barisal. Photos: Writer, archives.