One Year of Cyclone Aila

Survivors still cry for adequate food, safe water, rehabilitation

21 May 2010, 18:00 PM

Staff Correspondent

Guests hold copies of a book titled 'Testimony of Journalists' at the publication ceremony at the National Press Club in the city yesterday. From left are Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, Ziaul Haque Mukta and Dr Mihir Kanti Majumder.Photo: STAR

Journalists from home and abroad who covered the devastation of cyclone Aila yesterday called for immediate reconstruction of the damaged embankments in the affected areas and ensuring rehabilitation of the survivors. The cyclone struck the country's coastal districts of Khulna and Satkhira on May 25 last year, leaving 190 people dead and thousands destitute. Expressing serious concern over the grave humanitarian crisis prevailing there, they said one year has passed since the victims have been enduring extreme sufferings from the lack of adequate food, water and shelter on the embankments, but their fate is yet to be changed. Apart from leading measurable lives, the emotions of the survivors in the affected areas became numb with voicing their demands to the journalists, government and non-government agencies for the last one year, they said, expressing resentment at the slow pace of reconstruction work of the damaged dykes. The journalists made the remarks at a launching ceremony of a compilation of reporters' testimonies on the sufferings of the Aila-hit people in one year at the Jatiya Press Club in the city. Fifteen journalists working in different national and international newspapers, television channels and news agencies gave their eyewitness accounts in the testimony and looked into the root of the trouble through a set of write-ups from personal perspectives. The testimony is published by Bangladesh Consortium of the Emergency Capacity Building (ECB) project which includes five international NGOs -- Oxfam, CARE, Catholic Relief Service, Concern Worldwide, World Vision and Save the Children -- in collaboration with Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihood (CSRL) to mark one year of sufferings of the Aila-hit people. Manjurul Ahsan Bulbul, chief executive officer and the editor in chief of the Boishakhi Television, and Dr Mihir Kanti Majumder, secretary to the ministry of environment and forest, unveiled the cover of the testimony. Mihir said repairing the dykes or raising their heights is not the only solution, increasing the capacity and raising voices in the international arena is also important. He stressed the need for involving the community people in the reconstruction and maintenance of the dykes. Mihir said the government has planned for afforestation in the 7,000 kilometres of costal embankments in the country as the dykes which are surrounded by trees were less destroyed by the cyclone. "We have changed the afforestation policy to this end," he said, adding the work of afforestation would be done with the involvement of the community people. Bulbul said, "We've to set our priorities first and then go for remedy as per the priorities." Urging the media to do more follow-up stories on the aftermath of Aila to put pressure on the government, he hoped that the testimony would shake the policy makers. Ziaul Haque Mukta, member secretary of CSRL, said the publication is the first of their series of programmes marking the one-year of the cyclone.