With cyclone Mahasen closing in on the country’s coastal belt, millions of people remain vulnerable in the region for inadequate cyclone shelters and protection dykes.
Many people are unwilling to move out to safety leaving behind their livestock and property, report our correspondents in coastal districts.
Meanwhile, the administration has evacuated nearly 10 lakh people, including two lakh in Cox’s Bazar and 20,000 in Laxmipur, according to the National Disaster Response Coordination Committee.
District officials were asked to evacuate people from coastal areas by yesterday evening, said committee officials.
A United Nations estimate shows that 8.2 million coastal people are vulnerable to the cyclone.
Maritime ports of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar have been asked to hoist danger signal seven, while Mongla port has been advised to hoist danger signal five.
Shah Amanat International Airport in Chittagong and the airport in Cox’s Bazar were shut since yesterday afternoon for inclement weather.
Cox’s Bazar, Chittagong, Noakhali, Laxmipur, Feni, Chandpur, Bhola, Barguna, Patuakhali, Barisal, and their offshore islands and chars have been under danger signal seven.
River ports in Dhaka, Barisal and Chandpur suspended plying of all vessels after the Met office advised them to hoist cautionary signal two.
UNPROTECTED CHARS
All chars in the Meghna estuary in Noakhali and Bhola, where millions of people have settled in reclaimed lands over the years, lack cyclone shelters and protection dykes.
In Bhola, more than two million people now pass every moment in extreme fear of the cyclone. Monpura Upazila by the Bay of Bengal has only 26 cyclone shelters for 1.5 lakh people. Of those, 15 have been marked as risky. Moreover, three char areas with thousands of families have no cyclone shelter or embankment.
In Baufal area of Patuakhali, 30,000 people in three char areas remain exposed to danger, as there is no cyclone shelter there. Many parts of the flood protection dykes over a stretch of
1,209 kilometres have been damaged since cyclone Sidr hit the country on May 15, 2007.
In Barguna, a 100-km stretch of the dyke remains extremely vulnerable to even a moderate surge. Water Development Board officials blamed poor allocation of funds for the failure to repair the dykes. Hundreds of volunteers and officials have been put on alert there.
The cyclone might generate a tidal surge of up to eight feet high and inundate the char areas, said Prodip Kumar of Kalapara meteorological radar centre.
Officials of Cyclone Preparedness Programme of Barisal Red Crescent said they are in regular contacts with the remote char areas over wireless.
A resident of char Kukri Mukri, a remote char in the Meghna estuary close to the Bay of Bengal, said many of them failed to take refuge in the cyclone shelter. “The only cyclone shelter here is already occupied by more than 2,000 workers, who migrated here from other places for job.”
“Most of the char’s 5,000 people have no option but to stay in their houses,” he said. People in adjacent chars also face similar situation.
Evacuation was hampered for lack of vessels in vulnerable places like nearby Kachia. Around 5,000 people had been evacuated from the area, while many were still left there.
PREPAREDNESS
In coastal areas, all concrete structures, educational institutions and other government buildings have been turned into cyclone shelters. The deputy commissioner of Cox’s Bazar said they have prepared 534 emergency shelters. “If necessary, we shall force people to evacuate,” he said.
In Bagerhat, the forest department officials of 35 camps in the Sundarbans have been asked to move to safer places, said officials. All forest officials from Katka, along with many fishermen, were moved to cyclone shelters.
Bangladesh Navy Captain Sohail said 22 naval vessels have been kept on standby for search, rescue and relief operations in Chittagong and Khulna.
Source: The Daily Star
