Aila affected people need work, not aid
Thursday, 27 May 2010
Aila affected people in the three districts of Khulna, Bagerhat and Satkhira have been leading miserable lives losing all their resources to the catastrophe, even after a year that the cyclone hit, due to a lack of work opportunities, reports UNB.
"We do not want aid, we want to work for survival. The government and foreign aid organisations could not provide aid including food and drinking water round the year. If they will create work opportunity for us, we will be able to raise our heads again throwing away all our frustrations," Abdul Khalek, a resident of Noynumber Shura under Gagura UP, said.
The people of the region had been engaged in shrimp cultivation to replace their traditional paddy cultivation over the last two decades. As hundreds of kilometres of the embankments were damaged after Aila, the tidal waters entered the shrimp enclosures twice every day, washing away the large stretches of shrimp fields and rendering the people of the area workless.
During a recent visit to Aila-affected areas, it was found that the majority of the shrimp enclosures were destroyed due to tidal water.
The residents of the area have depended on catching fish from the rivers. As the saline water contaminated the fresh water of the rivers, the fish species are decreasing from the rivers day by day, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to change their professions.
Meanwhile, a large number of people in the region raised their voices to reintroduce their traditional job - Paddy cultivation - instead of shrimp cultivation.
Mohammad Abul Hossain, a fisherman who lives in Gabura, alleged that a vested quarter had introduced shrimp cultivation in the area for their benefit by destroying the fertile land.
"We are passing days without work now. So, we all have decided to cultivate paddy leaving shrimp cultivation and if we can grow more paddy, we will be able to bring back our old days," he said.
The government with assistance from some NGOs and foreign aid organisations has been providing food and other support among the Aila affected people, but it is too inadequate to meet the demand.
Recently, some 5200 families out of 8393 families at Gabura UP started getting 20 kg of rice per month under the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) Programme.
The member secretary of Upakulio Bandh Nirman Gonosangram Committee Ashek-e-Elahi said that although the targeted food distribution and Cash for Work programmes were initiated by government and NGOs, they do not cover all the cyclone victims.
Two-thirds of the affected people cannot have three meals a day on average and around 83 per cent of them cannot buy sufficient food for their families and there is no special feeding arrangement for children and lactating mothers, according to a follow-up assessment report of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO).
"We do not want aid, we want to work for survival. The government and foreign aid organisations could not provide aid including food and drinking water round the year. If they will create work opportunity for us, we will be able to raise our heads again throwing away all our frustrations," Abdul Khalek, a resident of Noynumber Shura under Gagura UP, said.
The people of the region had been engaged in shrimp cultivation to replace their traditional paddy cultivation over the last two decades. As hundreds of kilometres of the embankments were damaged after Aila, the tidal waters entered the shrimp enclosures twice every day, washing away the large stretches of shrimp fields and rendering the people of the area workless.
During a recent visit to Aila-affected areas, it was found that the majority of the shrimp enclosures were destroyed due to tidal water.
The residents of the area have depended on catching fish from the rivers. As the saline water contaminated the fresh water of the rivers, the fish species are decreasing from the rivers day by day, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to change their professions.
Meanwhile, a large number of people in the region raised their voices to reintroduce their traditional job - Paddy cultivation - instead of shrimp cultivation.
Mohammad Abul Hossain, a fisherman who lives in Gabura, alleged that a vested quarter had introduced shrimp cultivation in the area for their benefit by destroying the fertile land.
"We are passing days without work now. So, we all have decided to cultivate paddy leaving shrimp cultivation and if we can grow more paddy, we will be able to bring back our old days," he said.
The government with assistance from some NGOs and foreign aid organisations has been providing food and other support among the Aila affected people, but it is too inadequate to meet the demand.
Recently, some 5200 families out of 8393 families at Gabura UP started getting 20 kg of rice per month under the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) Programme.
The member secretary of Upakulio Bandh Nirman Gonosangram Committee Ashek-e-Elahi said that although the targeted food distribution and Cash for Work programmes were initiated by government and NGOs, they do not cover all the cyclone victims.
Two-thirds of the affected people cannot have three meals a day on average and around 83 per cent of them cannot buy sufficient food for their families and there is no special feeding arrangement for children and lactating mothers, according to a follow-up assessment report of the European Commission's Humanitarian Aid Department (ECHO).