Human lives in coastal areas and Sidr
Friday, 23 November 2007
Sadiq Rahim
EVERYBODY as a Bangladeshi, knows it very well that the cyclones in the year 1970 had devastated the coastal belts of Bangladesh in such a massive way that it had taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of that areas with massive destruction of land and properties. To this day, we have again experienced devastation due to 'Sidr', but not on a scale in the 1970. However, lesser, it has also claimed lives of approximately around 10,000 inhabitants of the coastal belt. This is a seasonal and yearly phenomenon intrinsic to the nature of the climate of the coastal areas in Bangladesh.
Nature will repeat due to its natural attribute. But we have to prevent the loss of lives if it happens again in future. This is high time that we take effective measures to circumspect, so that when such destructive cyclones strike, we can save those lives. Weather forecasting technology has greatly improved now-a-days; we can predict well in advance what natural disaster is approaching. During the period of forecasting and the actual time of strike, we can take massive preparation to avoid such devastation of loss of lives.
Scientists, environmental specialists and other concerned government agencies and institution should start planning from now to what can be done to stop the loss of lives during cyclones and hurricanes. They can build more concrete shelters with large capacity in the disaster prone areas of Sandwip, Hatia, Bhola, Dublar Char, Borguna, Potuakhali, Pirozpur, Barisal, so that all the peoples in those areas can quickly be transferred to those shelters immediately after announcement of such looming disaster approaching. Also in those shelters, necessary food, medicines and cloths should be made available adequately.
If we analyse these natural disasters and the subsequent huge loss of lives repeatedly after several years of intervals, it becomes apparent to us that a deeply rooted socio-economic factor is responsible for such a huge loss of lives in the coastal areas. The people living in those areas are ultra poor; they have only means of living is a slum in those remote lands. They have no effective means to communicate with the rest of the country. They are living in those areas as an isolated entity year after year with very poor means of living. They even haven't got the means to travel to other places. They only sustain themselves in those areas very marginally year after year. So they fall victims to such disasters naturally.
Therefore, government agencies such as Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), NGOs and other public, private, social and voluntary humanitarian agencies should come forward to devise a plan to address the socio-economic factors behind such disasters. They must work in collaboration with each other to chalk out a plan as to how such huge loss of lives can be prevented from further happening in times of such devastating cyclones and hurricanes in around the coastal belts of Bangladesh.
(The writer can be reached at
e-mail: sadiq99@aitlbd.net)
EVERYBODY as a Bangladeshi, knows it very well that the cyclones in the year 1970 had devastated the coastal belts of Bangladesh in such a massive way that it had taken the lives of hundreds of thousands of inhabitants of that areas with massive destruction of land and properties. To this day, we have again experienced devastation due to 'Sidr', but not on a scale in the 1970. However, lesser, it has also claimed lives of approximately around 10,000 inhabitants of the coastal belt. This is a seasonal and yearly phenomenon intrinsic to the nature of the climate of the coastal areas in Bangladesh.
Nature will repeat due to its natural attribute. But we have to prevent the loss of lives if it happens again in future. This is high time that we take effective measures to circumspect, so that when such destructive cyclones strike, we can save those lives. Weather forecasting technology has greatly improved now-a-days; we can predict well in advance what natural disaster is approaching. During the period of forecasting and the actual time of strike, we can take massive preparation to avoid such devastation of loss of lives.
Scientists, environmental specialists and other concerned government agencies and institution should start planning from now to what can be done to stop the loss of lives during cyclones and hurricanes. They can build more concrete shelters with large capacity in the disaster prone areas of Sandwip, Hatia, Bhola, Dublar Char, Borguna, Potuakhali, Pirozpur, Barisal, so that all the peoples in those areas can quickly be transferred to those shelters immediately after announcement of such looming disaster approaching. Also in those shelters, necessary food, medicines and cloths should be made available adequately.
If we analyse these natural disasters and the subsequent huge loss of lives repeatedly after several years of intervals, it becomes apparent to us that a deeply rooted socio-economic factor is responsible for such a huge loss of lives in the coastal areas. The people living in those areas are ultra poor; they have only means of living is a slum in those remote lands. They have no effective means to communicate with the rest of the country. They are living in those areas as an isolated entity year after year with very poor means of living. They even haven't got the means to travel to other places. They only sustain themselves in those areas very marginally year after year. So they fall victims to such disasters naturally.
Therefore, government agencies such as Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), NGOs and other public, private, social and voluntary humanitarian agencies should come forward to devise a plan to address the socio-economic factors behind such disasters. They must work in collaboration with each other to chalk out a plan as to how such huge loss of lives can be prevented from further happening in times of such devastating cyclones and hurricanes in around the coastal belts of Bangladesh.
(The writer can be reached at
e-mail: sadiq99@aitlbd.net)