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Islanders want permanent embankment

Tarawa sails for home May 29

From Nazmul Ashraf
CHITTAGONG. May 23: Tarawa, the mother ship of the US Task Force, and its fleet 'Eagle of the Sea' will set sail for home on May 29 the 15th birthday of the Tarawa.
About 6900 Marines and sailors will also depart with the fleet while 388 airmen, army and navy personnel will stay on at Chittagong Airport to conduct relief operations.
Lieutenant Ken Ross, press spokesman for the Task Force said on Thursday that the Tarawa would be returning to Long Beach and camp Pendleton of California after six months of its departure for the Gulf.
The Tarawa was commissioned on May 29. 1976. This correspondent also visited affected areas of Kutubdia island off Cox's Bazar to have an on the spot view of the devastation and the on going relief operations. Following is the despatch:
'For the safety of our lives, we want a permanent embankment' — read the demand on a white banner just as we got off the helicopter at Kutubdia upazila headquarters.
People of the island, battered by the April 29 cyclone and tidal surge displayed the banner to draw the attention of the US Task Force personnel, ferrying relief goods there from Chittagong Airport by copters.
The Task Force copters were also carrying Journalists, from home and abroad, to vari . ous destinations at the offshore islands.
The message on the banner was in English because, as the local people said, they wanted to communicate their prime need to the foreigners, who really wish their betterment.
The relief operations in the worst-hit island of Cox's Bazar was satisfactory, most of the locals said while some differed
During my visit to the Island on May 19. I talked to people In different localities and bazars. I was informed of a variety of problems confronting the Islanders. But it was on one. which they stressed most, the Immediate reconstruction of the 31-mile embankment washed away by the tidal waves.
We don't want relief goods, protect us from the next disaster by rebuilding the embankment If we are alive, means of living will be found'. Abdul Gafur of Koierblll village made the appeal, while his companions supported him.
Abdul Gafur, no doubt, echoed the demand of lakhs of others passing fearful days In the off-shore islands and coastal areas.
Small trader Abul Kashem of Baroghop who appeared to be a in better condition, supporting Gafur said, the construction of the embankment would also employ most of the
unemployed population of the Island.
With the embankment washed away, water often engulfs the low-lying areas during high tide. The cyclone-hit islanders were found afraid of a fresh tidal surge that, they thought, might cause more damage and casualties.
Reconstruction of the embankment. damaged fully or partially, has begun, officials claimed. But when we (journalists) flew aboard a Bangladesh Airforce helicopter almost touching the trees and houses of the islands, we did not find that any such work had began. I also found no-reconstruction work in progress when I visited the coastal belt of Patenga later the same day.
Some WAPDA officials, examining the damaged embankment at Patenga reported having seen a few people begin rebuilding portion of the embankment near the Export Processing Zone.
I received similar reports while talking to the people on the way to Kutubdia.
They said, reconstruction at one or two points of the embankment had started under the Food for Work Programme. But those came to a halt, they added.
We saw from the helicopter, waters engulfing Kutubdia's low-lying areas of Dhurang. Lemshikhall. Koierbill, Baroghop and Akbar All Dail. These are the worst-hit areas of the island where people are living on the debris left by the disaster.
Unless the embankment is rebuilt, farming, salt producing and fishing, major occupations of the islanders, won't be possible to resume, concerned people said. Besides, they added, the government agricultural rehabilitation programme would and in papers if
the task was not done without further delay.
Other major demands of the local people, included providing of necessary equipments to resume their work, draining out of stagnant saline water, reconstruction of the destroyed houses, or supply of housing materials and loans of various kinds under reasonable conditions.
Life seemed normal at the upazila headquarters and its surrounding areas while in the remote areas life was far from normal.
Many distressed families were found residing in the island's educational institutions, community centres and cy clone shelters.
The families, affected but otherwise affluent, were learnt to have left the island for better living In Cox's Bazar. Chittagong and elsewhere.
The entire island of Kutubdia plunges into darkness at night since electric lines there are not yet restored.
Earlier, a generator used to supply the Islanders with power for six hours everyday. But the cyclone rendered the generator inoperative and uprooted many of the electric poles snapping the wires.
Unlike other Islands. Kutubdia was rich with its more educated and solvent people living on salt production. crop farming and fishing.