By Syful Islam
Syful Islam is a senior reporter with The New Nation newspaper in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AlertNet) Â? Residents in regions of southern Bangladesh devastated last year by Cyclone Aila face "immeasurable" economic losses from flooding and potential forced migration unless storm-damaged embankments can be repaired by the end of March, before a new season of rains begin, local officials say.
Eight months after the cyclone, more than 200,000 people in the region remain homeless, many living on elevated roads and embankments while their fields remain underwater and their homes in ruins.
Until the protective embankments are repaired, they say, they cannot return to their land to rebuild their homes or to plant crops for the coming growing season.
"I can't count the loss numerically (but) I must say that it will be immeasurable. People will have no choice but to further migrate somewhere else," said Sabbir Ahmed, a government-appointed administrator in Satkhira district, one of those most severely affected.
According to Humanitywatch, a local non-governmental organization, 82,000 acres of land in the region around Koyra, Dacope, Shyamnagar and Assasuni, in Khulna and Satkhira districts, is now flooded with salt water.
The flooding has left 71,000 people living on elevated roads, 76,000 displaced to towns and 5,900 living in the cyclone shelters, the group said.
In a statement, Humanitywatch quoted the superintendent engineer of the Bangladesh Water Development Board as saying 629 kilometres (400 miles) of embankments were damaged and progress in repairing them was too slow.
'THE SITUATION IS VERY BAD'
"The situation is very bad. Many people are living in inhuman conditions, in huts on the embankments built with plastic sheets, with no food and drinking water. Unless the embankments are built this year, another 100,000 people will face forced migration," warned Manirul Islam, an Oxfam Bangladesh programme official, in an interview with AlertNet.
"The land in those affected areas is under knee-deep water but (the level) goes to 5- to 8-foot-deep water twice a day when the high tide come through the broken embankments," he said.
In a statement, a coalition of aid groups, including Oxfam, Care and ActionAid, said there is "serious concern among the communities and relevant professionals and experts that if the broken embankments are not reconstructed and repaired by March 2010, it would require waiting for another winter to complete the work."
That would mean "more than 200,000 people will have to remain homeless for an indefinite time-period, which is inhuman and unacceptable on any grounds and a serious issue of human and fundamental rights violation," the group said.
Gias Uddin, the government-appointed administrator of the sub-district of Assasuni, said he was hopeful the embankments there would be rebuilt quickly enough.
Local people and non-governmental groups, however, said they cannot see much evidence to support his hopes.
Cyclone Aila, which struck last May, killed 300 people and destroyed 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) of roads and embankments, aid groups said.
That has produced heavy hardships for people driven onto elevated roads while waiting to return to their farms.
Shorbanu Khatun, 33, one of the 'tiger widows' of Bangladesh's coast - she lost her husband to a tiger attack - is now living in a makeshift hut in Shyamnagar embankment.
In a telephone interview, she said she and her family were starving as there was inadequate food and drinking water.
INADEQUATE FOOD, JOBS
"The government each month gives us 20 kilograms of rice under the vulnerable group feeding programme, which is very little for our seven-member family," she said.
"Earlier, we got some construction work, but at present those are over. My two young sons (15 and 13 years old) went to the capital Dhaka to find jobs, but they returned empty handed," said Khatun, who has three sons and one daughter, who was married at the age of 7.
Farida Rani, 32, another widow and the mother of two young daughters, said families like hers were at the end of their resources, and facing a new rainy season that was likely to end hopes the embankments would be repaired soon.
"There is no source of earning. No work, even no fishes in the rivers to catch. We are eating a single meal a day," she said.
"My family is living in a hut on the embankment. WednesdayÂ?s rain soaked all of our things," she said. "I want to go back to my house after the embankments are repaired. But I have no idea when those will be rebuilt."
Easin Alam, 24, a student at the University of Dhaka who recently visited his family in Koyra, said drinking water has become a major concern for people of the area with salty water pouring through the area's canals. Ponds and rainwater are the main source of drinking water for people in Khulna and Satkhira.
"My parents, brother and his wife are living in a village where finding food has become very much challenging as we could not cultivate our lands for the last year. My sister-in-law left for Bandarban district, a hilly area, after Aila ravaged our village. Unless the embankments are rebuilt, we will have no choice but to bring my family members to Dhaka, Jessore or somewhere else," he said.
FORCED MIGRATION AHEAD?
Gouranga Nandy, a local journalist and activist, called the situation "inhuman" and predicted wholesale migration if people cannot begin cultivating their land for food.
"In one sentence I can say the situation is very bad, very inhuman. People who have no choice are living on the embankments. Some have left for Dhaka and elsewhere," said Nandy, a leader of Aila Durgoto Sanghati Mancho, a movement pressing the government to quickly rebuilt the embankments.
Bangladesh's Food and Disaster Management Minister, Abdur Razzaq, has said he is concerned about the slow progress on embankment repairs, and said he would set a week's deadline for the Bangladesh Water Development Board (WDB) to pick up the pace of the work.
"If the WDB fails to show enough progress, we will be engaging local people and army personnel in this work," he told journalists.
The country's State Minister for Environment, Hasan Mahmud, said only initial renovation work on the destroyed embankments would be completed by March, and finishing the repairs would take at least another year.
Habibur Rahman, director general of the Bangladesh Water Development Board, told AlertNet he remains hopeful the renovation work could be completed in March.
"I am a little bit worried over the progress but hopeful to be successful," he said, noting that tenders have been put out for work to rebuild the embankments.
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