Editorial
Life after Mahasen
Victims need swift rehabilitation
We are rather fortunate in that cyclone Mahasen did not inflict on us the degree of damage we had feared it would. But that is again no reason to think that everything remains as it was before the cyclone passed over Bangladesh. The coastal districts tell the story of thousands of people whose lives have indeed been turned upside down by Mahasen. All of these people now live under the open sky. While their lives, except for seventeen people, have been spared, their homes have not. In terms of figures, no fewer than 3.82 lakh people are direct victims of the cyclone. As many as 15,000 homes have been destroyed and 44,000 thousand have been damaged.
The circumstances call for rapid rehabilitation of the distressed. The government certainly deserves appreciation for the quick and effective steps it took in the matter of shifting people to safer places as the cyclone approached the coastal areas. It was a sign of how preparedness and mobilization can deliver results. In much the same way, it now becomes the task of the authorities to ensure, through assistance of the material sort, that those whose homes have been destroyed or damaged are quickly and efficiently helped in a rebuilding of their homesteads. Moreover, public health needs serious looking into.
Conditions as they happen to be must not be prolonged. Alongside the government, there should also be space for NGOs and other welfare-oriented organisations to pitch in with help. There is hardly any room for delay.
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