Aila victims brace for more miseries

A new disaster might befall the Aila hit area in the coastal belt if breaches in the embankments at six major points in Satkhira and Khulna are not repaired immediately, warned the Power and Participation Research Centre (PPRC) yesterday.

About seven lakh people in Padmapukur, Gabura and Pratapnagar unions in Satkhira and all the unions of Koyra upazila in Khulna are under threat posed by the damaged embankments, said Hossain Zillur Rahman, executive chairman of PPRC.

He was addressing the newsmen at a press briefing to share experiences of a recent visit to Aila affected areas.

Zillur, who is also a former adviser to a caretaker government, pointed out that repairs should be completed before the monsoon, otherwise fresh areas would be submerged with saline water affecting more people.

About 597km of embankment in Khulna and 292.4km in Satkhira district were severely damaged as cyclone Aila hit in May last year, which inundated about 323,454 acres of land with saline water. About 45, 000 people are still living under the open sky on the damaged embankments.

Zillur commented that the government had abandoned the Aila hit people and without proper disaster management follow-ups the impact of Aila is about to shape up into different forms of disaster.

He added scarcity of drinking water is already posing a major threat to the locals. And with the embankments still left unrepaired, the suffering is only to increase.

Another major issue ignored by the government is the devastation of educational institutions in the area. About 142 schools in Satkhira and 13 in Khulna have been fully destroyed by cyclone Aila, he said.

Zillur also said the Water Development Board, responsible for the management of the embankments, has failed to respond to the crisis.

He stressed the involvement of local people in the maintenance of embankments in merger of local knowledge with modern technologies and creating a green protection belt around the coast.

He also insisted on initiating a long-term action plan for the coastal area. The core poverty zone is shifting from the North Bengal to the South due to climate change inflicted natural disasters, he added.

Brac Development Centre Director Syed Hashemi also addressed the press briefing.