The New Nation - Internet Edition

Cyclone Sidr-battered families in the coastal Upazila of Dublar Char have been found to dig makeshift wells to meet the immediate need for water to drink and cook food, as the island is surrounded by brackish water of the Bay of Bengal. The situation is more desperate in other areas of the worst affected districts where sweet water ponds have either been filled with saline water or extremely polluted by decomposed bodies, carcasses of animals, tree branches and leaves. Most hand tube-wells, the sources of safe drinking water, have been rendered out of service by the cyclone.

The November 15 cyclone has not only caused thousands of deaths but also made life difficult for at least four million others who have survived the cataclysm, by the polluted environment that the cyclone has left in its trail. The homes in the worst affected districts of Barguna, Bagerhat, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Barisal and Bhola have been battered so badly that it has become difficult for their owners to identify those.

Broken pieces of houses, fallen trees, and bodies of the dead and carcasses of animals have been strewn by the powerful cyclone in such a way that it is difficult even to walk into what once were the safe homes of people. People of the coastal districts who rely on sweet water ponds filled with rainwater during the rainy season, to use for cooking and washing throughout the year are now faced with a serious scarcity of safe water as all such ponds have turned stinky and coloured by decomposed carcasses and leaves of trees.

According to Government estimates, the cyclone has directly affected four million people in 141 upazilas out of 460, damaged 300,000 houses completely and at least another 600,000 houses partially. The death toll, according to Government estimates is in the neighbourhood of 4,000. About two thousand more people are reported missing according to official estimates.

Crops on an estimated 900 thousand acres of land have been damaged completely or partially, according to the government assessments. Because of the Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) out of an estimated 3.2 million people who were considered at risk for falling on the track of cyclone SIDR, about 1.5 million could be evacuated to safety from surge- prone areas. And the loss of human life and property is expected to be relatively less than what similar disasters caused in 1970, 1985 and 1991.

The rescue and relief operations initiated by the government with total support of the armed forces have ensured the supply of food to almost all the affected area by now. The relief and rehabilitation activities are expected to be strengthened and consolidated in the coming weeks. The international community had also come forward with support to the initiatives.

But the threat that now looms is of the outbreak of skin and diarrhoeal diseases if the polluted waters of ponds are not cleaned and the damaged hand tube-wells are not repaired. Local people believe that the stinky and coloured water can be cleaned by applying lime and potash in appropriate doses. This would help the survival of fish which are still alive in those ponds that have not been filled with saline water brought in by the tidal surge generated by the cyclone.

The Joint Forces Headquarters set up in Barisal to coordinate relief operations of the government, NGOs and other social organisations should immediately focus on the need to help overcome scarcity of clean water created by the cyclone in the affected areas. Otherwise it would be extremely difficult to cope with outbreak of epidemics to be caused by the rotten water.

The affected people have with great difficulty started getting back to their shattered homes. The government is about to launch a massive programme to help them rebuild their homes, and ensure regular supply of food for which 2.1 million vulnerable group feeding (VGF) cards are being distributed. But the immediate need is clean water without which more people would die in epidemics.

But pollution-free water must be ensured on an urgent basis by cleaning ponds in affected areas with lime and potassium. Supplying food is not a big problem any more but making usable water is.