Mobilising resources for the flood
Thursday, 9 August 2007
Enayet Rasul
THE countrywide flood in its sweep, devastations and creation of human miseries, is near to becoming like the great deluge of 1988 which was considered as the worst faced by the country in living memory. More than two-thirds of the country in varying degrees have been flooded and new areas are getting flooded every day. No immediate recession of the flood waters is expected. Forecasts are only about a worsening of the flood with heavy rains still falling in the upper catchments areas in India that roll down into Bangladesh to create massive onrush of flood waters in this country.
An unforgettable feature of the 1988 flood was the large scale flooding of the capital city itself; countryboats sailed in the Motijheel commercial area for some days at that time. The situation is less grim so far this year but observers say that it is only a question of time before the 1988 calamity gets repeated in Dhaka city. Flood waters are rising well above danger level, simultaneously, in all six rivers flowing through and past Dhaka city. Thus, the nerve-centre of the country's administrative as well as commercial activities could be no different from the rest of the flood-hit parts of the country some days from now.
It is not desirable to be hesitant with a great catastrophe looming over the country whether international assistance should be officially invited or not. It appears from newspaper reports that the government is still not decided about asking for international help to cope with the flood. Even optimism was expressed from some quarters that the country can face up to the flood with its own resources. This is showing a brave and honourable face of the country, no doubt. But when a natural calamity of the magnitude which is sweeping Bangladesh, strikes, it is more pragmatic to be guided by flexibility in policies and actions.
Surely, the massive number of the flood affected can more than do with help from any source to tide over their present and post-flood sufferings. The management of immediate relief efforts and the longer term recovery plan, will call for a massive mobilisation of resources. The country's own resources would be under a severe stress if it is sought to rely only on locally available resources.
The idea of diverting resources from different economic sectors to help the flood victims is a tempting one. But doing of this could seriously undermine performance in those areas with adverse implications on overall economic growth in the post-flood period.
Therefore, the wise thing to do would be to raise as much resources as possible from within the country for aiding the flood affected that would not cause serious shortfall in different sectors of the economy and to meet any gaps in resources through foreign aid. And the sooner this aid is called for and received, the better. International disaster relief usually gets mobilised urgently and also arrive fast. But from officially issuing a call for such relief, the response to the same and the actual dispatch of relief goods take time. Thus, the sooner the decision is taken to call for large scale international assistance, the better.
Bangladesh may cope in the short term in mitigating the woes of the affected in the flood shelters with food supply, medicines and other emergency assistances. But worse problems will arise once flood waters start going down. The country would be faced with the task of reconstructing damaged homesteads in great number in the flooded areas, devastated infrastructures or crumbled roads, damaged railways tracks, collapsed embankments and bridges, etc. Millions of farmers have lost everything including their standing crops in the fields. A great deal of resources would be, therefore, badly needed to rebuild homes, run a free feeding programmes for the most distressed till they are helped back to their feet or a new crop can be raised, for swift repair of infrastructures, etc. Trying to tackle all of these unexpected tasks from the country's own limited and budgeted resources or trimming the same for diversion to flood-related activities, may lead to a situation of thinning resources that would neither help in implementing to satisfaction flood recovery plans but would rather hazard activities in different sectors of the economy from withdrawn or depleted funds.
Thus, the sensible thing is to make a head start in collecting international assistance to be able to smoothly carry out the flood recovery plan as well as to maintain the tempo of the economy in other spheres after the flood. There ought not to be any reservation in calling for international assistance because such assistances to come would be in the form of mainly grants with no strings attached. But the same could be of immense help in meeting resource voids. International food aid on a long term basis can be particularly helpful and also grants to meet the needs of home and road rebuilding and repairing of infrastructures.
There is an international culture of caring and sharing and trans-national cooperation that regard the helping of suffering humanity as the highest value. National honour or pride ought not to stand in the way when it comes to helping teeming millions of people to survive and resume their normal life.
THE countrywide flood in its sweep, devastations and creation of human miseries, is near to becoming like the great deluge of 1988 which was considered as the worst faced by the country in living memory. More than two-thirds of the country in varying degrees have been flooded and new areas are getting flooded every day. No immediate recession of the flood waters is expected. Forecasts are only about a worsening of the flood with heavy rains still falling in the upper catchments areas in India that roll down into Bangladesh to create massive onrush of flood waters in this country.
An unforgettable feature of the 1988 flood was the large scale flooding of the capital city itself; countryboats sailed in the Motijheel commercial area for some days at that time. The situation is less grim so far this year but observers say that it is only a question of time before the 1988 calamity gets repeated in Dhaka city. Flood waters are rising well above danger level, simultaneously, in all six rivers flowing through and past Dhaka city. Thus, the nerve-centre of the country's administrative as well as commercial activities could be no different from the rest of the flood-hit parts of the country some days from now.
It is not desirable to be hesitant with a great catastrophe looming over the country whether international assistance should be officially invited or not. It appears from newspaper reports that the government is still not decided about asking for international help to cope with the flood. Even optimism was expressed from some quarters that the country can face up to the flood with its own resources. This is showing a brave and honourable face of the country, no doubt. But when a natural calamity of the magnitude which is sweeping Bangladesh, strikes, it is more pragmatic to be guided by flexibility in policies and actions.
Surely, the massive number of the flood affected can more than do with help from any source to tide over their present and post-flood sufferings. The management of immediate relief efforts and the longer term recovery plan, will call for a massive mobilisation of resources. The country's own resources would be under a severe stress if it is sought to rely only on locally available resources.
The idea of diverting resources from different economic sectors to help the flood victims is a tempting one. But doing of this could seriously undermine performance in those areas with adverse implications on overall economic growth in the post-flood period.
Therefore, the wise thing to do would be to raise as much resources as possible from within the country for aiding the flood affected that would not cause serious shortfall in different sectors of the economy and to meet any gaps in resources through foreign aid. And the sooner this aid is called for and received, the better. International disaster relief usually gets mobilised urgently and also arrive fast. But from officially issuing a call for such relief, the response to the same and the actual dispatch of relief goods take time. Thus, the sooner the decision is taken to call for large scale international assistance, the better.
Bangladesh may cope in the short term in mitigating the woes of the affected in the flood shelters with food supply, medicines and other emergency assistances. But worse problems will arise once flood waters start going down. The country would be faced with the task of reconstructing damaged homesteads in great number in the flooded areas, devastated infrastructures or crumbled roads, damaged railways tracks, collapsed embankments and bridges, etc. Millions of farmers have lost everything including their standing crops in the fields. A great deal of resources would be, therefore, badly needed to rebuild homes, run a free feeding programmes for the most distressed till they are helped back to their feet or a new crop can be raised, for swift repair of infrastructures, etc. Trying to tackle all of these unexpected tasks from the country's own limited and budgeted resources or trimming the same for diversion to flood-related activities, may lead to a situation of thinning resources that would neither help in implementing to satisfaction flood recovery plans but would rather hazard activities in different sectors of the economy from withdrawn or depleted funds.
Thus, the sensible thing is to make a head start in collecting international assistance to be able to smoothly carry out the flood recovery plan as well as to maintain the tempo of the economy in other spheres after the flood. There ought not to be any reservation in calling for international assistance because such assistances to come would be in the form of mainly grants with no strings attached. But the same could be of immense help in meeting resource voids. International food aid on a long term basis can be particularly helpful and also grants to meet the needs of home and road rebuilding and repairing of infrastructures.
There is an international culture of caring and sharing and trans-national cooperation that regard the helping of suffering humanity as the highest value. National honour or pride ought not to stand in the way when it comes to helping teeming millions of people to survive and resume their normal life.