The New Nation - Internet Edition

Staff Reporter

The cyclone-devastated people in the worst hit areas of the coastal districts have started reorganising their lives amid severe shortage of food, drinking water and medicine.

Diarrhoea has already started spreading among the dehydrated survivors in an epidemic form, aid workers and journalists reported from the affected areas yesterday.

The urgently-needed supplies of food, water and medicine have started reaching people in remote areas of the most-battered districts, as many roads have now been cleared off hundreds of fallen trees that had blocked the movement of aid convoys.

"Relief finally starting to get through to the people in the most inaccessible areas where there were little or nothing to eat or drink for the last five days," a senior official said yesterday.

The super cyclone Sidr, which had hit 12 districts hard on the south and southwestern coast of the country battering the areas as it passed over from Thursday evening to Friday morning, left thousands of people dead and millions homeless. The storm had hit 34 of the country's 64 districts. Of these four districts-Patukhali, Barguna, Bagerhat and Pirojpur-took the worst knocking of the hurricane.

The dangerous cyclone shattered peoples' livelihood by destroying their homes, standing crops, shrimp firms, killing cattleheads, washing away fishing trawlers and boats.

Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, in an address to the nation, yesterday termed the catastrophe a 'national disaster', which pushed the country to a dangerous situation and hitting the economy hard following the consecutive all pervasive floods.

Appreciating the courage of the survivors, who are famed for managing to endure frequent floods and storms, he gave a clarion call to all irrespective of their political affiliations to join hands to help the affected people.

The Chief Adviser said at least four millions people were affected by the cyclone, which killed thousands.

Meanwhile, Housing and Public Works, Law and Information Adviser Barrister Mainul Hosein visited Barisal and Pirojpur and distributed relief among the affected people and encouraged them to reorganise their lives.

He returned to the capital after a day visit to the affected areas.

Army Chief General Moeen U Ahmed yesterday visited different areas of worst-hit Patukhali, Barguna, Bagerhat and Pirojpur districts yesterday.

He distributed relief materials among survivors and pledged that aid would reach everyone soon.

"Not a single person shall die without food as the Government has sufficient stock of foodstuff," he said while addressing survivors at different places.

Officials said the Armed Forces were continuing to work side-by-side with aid agencies to deliver relief by air, road and sea to remote places.

The Armed Forces have made available 12 sea-going ships, 12 helicopters and two aircrafts to carryout rescue and relief operations by 3000 military personnel.

Meanwhile, bilateral and international donor countries and agencies as well friendly countries have already made an aid pledge to the tune of US 145 million dollars. Saudi Arabia is leading all the countries with an aid pledge of US 100 dollars. More immediate, short and long-term aid is expected to pour into the country, Foreign Office sources said yesterday.

The Foreign Ministry on Monday made an aid appeal to the international community.

However, civilian relief workers and volunteers of aid agencies are still struggling to reach relief materials to the survivors.

"It is hard to reach them in the inaccessible areas," said Anwarul Haq, who is the spokesperson of BRAC, the country's largest NGO.

He said the real picture of devastation and losses by the fury of the severe storm are yet to be assessed. It will take weeks before we know the real picture, he added.

World Food Programme's Country Representative Douglas Casson Coutts said the extent of the devastation-villages flattened and crops and livestock washed away-would make it difficult for people to rebuild their lives.

"There is significant damage to the infrastructure. There will definitely have to be longer term assistance to get people on their feet again," he said.

Heather Blackwell, the Bangladesh head of the British aid group Oxfam says, "The scale of this disaster is enormous."

"People here are resilient. However, the scale is such that it will take months for people to be able to return to their normal lives," she said, adding it "could take weeks before we know exactly how bad this cyclone was."

The confirmed death toll is jumping every moment as relief workers reaching new places in the isolated areas.

Provision of medical treatment including surgery would also be stepped up through an army-run "floating hospital," he said while visiting the southern Bagerhat district.

Villagers in some of the country's most remote areas along the coast have seen their homes and livelihoods washed away by a huge tidal wave, and are without food or clean water.

The United Nation's Children's Fund said nearly half of those affected by the disaster were children, an estimated 400,000 of them under the age of five years.

"Many have drowned or were injured by falling trees," UNICEF said.