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Returning to normalcy

Mahabub Hossain, Manoranjan MONDAL, and BABAR KABIR
The landless may be rehabilitated with diverse self-employed and/or wage employed economic activities. They can be provided with boats and fishing nets, and hired to re-construct the embankment under cash for work or food for work programs. They may also be provided with some grants for starting small businesses.
Cyclone Aila hit the southwestern coast on May 25, just one and a half years after Cyclone Sidr hit Bangladesh. The most severely affected areas are Shyamnagar upazila of Satkhira district and Koyra and Dacope upazilas of Khulna district, the areas adjacent to the Sundarbans extending from Sharankhola in the east to South 24 Pargona in West Bengal in the west. According to the 2001 Population Census, these three upazilas had 90,000 households with a population of 0.66 million.
The Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) constructed an earthen embankment in the 1960's to protect the area from salinity intrusion caused by tidal fluctuations and bring the land under cultivation. The system of enclosing agricultural lands and homestead areas with embankments is called poldering. BWDB also constructed a number of sluice gates to drain out excess rainwater within the polder to prevent inundation during the monsoon season.
With the protection of areas from tidal waves and opportunities for livelihoods through farming of saline free land, human habitation has spread and the area has become densely settled. From early 1980s the highly profitable brackish water shrimp farming has spread widely.
This, together with poor maintenance, has weakened the embankments. The embankment in many places could not withstand the huge tidal surge caused by Cyclone Aila. It is reported that more than 1,700 km of the embankment were washed away, which caused inundation of agricultural lands and homesteads.
When Aila hit the coast, salty tidal water entered the polder through the breached embankment. The entire area is now exposed to tidal fluctuations twice a day and has become unflt for human habitation.
There are some areas where tidal influence does not reach and water stagnation is worsened by rotten grass, fallen leaves and dead plants. Aila was not as strong as Sidr and its effect was localised, but the damage is much more devastating and will be long-lasting.
The livelihood of the Aila affected people centres around crop farming, pond aquaculture (mostly shrimp farming), fishing, and collection of forest products from the Sundarbans. The farmers used to grow a single crop of aman rice in the rainy season. Some of them depend on shrimp cultivation as part of their livelihoods. Cyclone Aila and the accompanying tidal surge demolished the shrimp ghers and destroyed the aush crop and vegetables, thus washing away their livelihoods.
The people along the coast live in mud houses, which collapsed when they came in contact with water. They are now living on the roadside and embankments in makeshift huts. The people are also facing acute shortage of drinking water, as the ponds have been completely submerged by saline water. Women and girls sitting on the roadside with pitchers and cans, waiting for the relief trucks carrying fresh water to arrive, is a very common sight.
At present, many people are living on the roads/embankments in temporary huts. Most of them are dependent on relief items. It is reported that about 25% of the affected people, most of whom belong to the landless households, left the area and migrated to safer places. The middle class, small and marginal landowners and tenants are the worst sufferers among the community. At present, they are dependent on their fixed assets (e.g. cow, goat, and ornaments) and personal savings.
Although many organisations and individuals provided emergency relief, it was not sufficient to meet the minimum basic needs of the distressed people. Their most earnest appeal is for immediate reconstruction of the breached embankments so that they can return to their normal livelihoods.
Until the embankments are repaired, the saline water cannot be drained, and the land will continue to be exposed to daily tidal fluctuations. Prolonged inun-
dation of the agricultural lands will make it impossible to restart normal economic activities and rehabilitate their livelihoods.
Some people, on their own initiative, have started repairing the damaged embankments, and the water has started receding from these areas. We have noted this situation in unions adjacent to Shyamnagar. However, the people are scared that the patchily repaired embankments may not be able to withstand high tides and strong waves that occur in late August and early September.
The Water Development Board needs to give immediate attention to repairing the embankments. Even if the water is drained within a month or so, the area will be unsuitable for growing aman paddy with the locally available seeds
(BR 10) because of the salt in the land. For these areas, distribution of seeds of salt-tolerant rice varieties is urgently needed.
Rice farming is not possible in areas where water stagnation will last till the next dry season, and innovative economic activities that can be undertaken with brackish water must be started. To get an idea of possible aquaculture activities, we visited the station of the Bangladesh Fisheries Research Institute located in Paikgachha. This station has been experimenting with rice/fish farming system for the coastal areas.
Scientists suggest that people could undertake low-cost fish culture by constructing cages or pens on their land. If the water salinity remains around 10 to 15 ppt. or below, tilapia and shrimps (bagda chingri) could be grown in the cages. The fish will grow to marketable size within four months. Another possibility is crab fattening in cages. The crabs grow very fast and the people can start earning income after two months of initiating this activity. A marketing chain for exporting crabs is already well established in the Satkhira region.
Since most of the farmers have lost their assets, soft loan or interest free loan would be useful for them. Transportation of bamboos and making of bamboo fixtures can help generate employment for some people in the area.
The landless may be rehabilitated with diverse self-employed and/or wage employed economic activities. They can be provided with boats and fishing nets, and hired to re-construct the embankment under cash for work or food for work programs. They may also be provided with some grants for starting small businesses.
Once the water is drained and people return to their homesteads, reconstruction of houses will be a major economic activity. The low-income households will need outside help with grants and/or soft loans for housing reconstruction. The ponds needs to be drained of saline water so that accumulated rainwater could be used for drink -ing purposes.
Repair and reconstruction of the embankment is urgently needed to rehabilitate the Aila victims. Once it is fixed, the people can help themselves to restore their pre-Aila livelihoods.
The government, NGOs and the civil society organisations must come forward with livelihood rehabilitation programs that must contain grants for the supply of boats and fishing nets for the landless, collection and distribution of seeds of salt-tolerant rice varieties, demonstration of cage culture fisheries, and supply of fingerlings of tilapia and shrimp. The supply of fresh drinking water from outside must continue till heavy monsoon arrives.
The writers are Brae staff members