"It takes about an hour to reach the nearest cyclone shelter on foot," says Md Abdul Khaleq Khan, 65, a freedom fighter from Jankhali village in Mathbaria upazila of Pirojpur. "We had planned to go early towards the shelter on the day Cyclone Sidr approached," he recalls, "but due to the tidal surge we could not. The cyclone reached us first.”

On 15 November 2007 Cyclone Sidr lashed the Bangladeshi coastline, leaving more than 3,000 dead and extensive property damage in its wake. Jankhali lies two kilometres inland from the Baleshwar River. The nearest cyclone shelter is on the river's embankment.

With no way to reach the shelter in time, Khan along with his family, like many of the villagers in Jankhali, had no choice but to face Sidr at home.

"We stayed in the house," he says of that terrifying night, "We knew our lives were at risk but there was nothing to do but wait and pray."

Being yet close to the Baleshwar, locals are more than aware Jankhali is susceptible to natural calamities including floods and cyclones. While, when Sidr hit, the village was

lucky to avoid fatalities, property damage was extensive.

"Over 90% of village homes were annihilated by Sidr," says another villager, Md Hafizur Rahman. “Our lives were at great risk when river water flooded the village after the Baleshwar embankment was damaged. But we could not reach proper shelter and only by extremely good fortune was nobody killed." Next time the Jankhali villagers know, they might not be so lucky.

In many coastal villages cyclone shelters double as

primary schools, but the Jankhali Government Primary School which was established in 1938 consists of a tin shed building with only four small rooms. "Our school building cannot properly house the 130 students," says Ikbal Hossain, headmaster. Moreover, in times of calamity it can offer no protection.

"If a cyclone shelter was built on the school premises, the benefits would be double," he adds.

"We have made requests at different government offices to set up a cyclone shelter at the school," says

local Md Nasir Uddin Howlader, "but as yet efforts are in vain.”

However, Jankhali is not alone among river-affected villages not to have an easily accessible shelter. “There are only six cyclone shelters in the union,” says Saifuddin M Ferdaus, chairman of Betmore Razpara union of which Jankhali is a part. "Each shelter can accommodate a maximum of 400 people, but we have a population of 26,000."

"More cyclone shelters are desperately needed to protect lives," he says.