Day 4, Monday

Situation in the field

Tofazzel Hossain Monjul, who normally works on the Realising the Rights of Older People programme and is also RIC’s treasurer returned from the field (Pirojpur) on Sunday. Monjul said that it was hard to differentiate the needs of older people from the general population due largely to the lack of disaggregated data at local authority level. However, older people have consistently featured in media stories, which have emphasized their vulnerability.

He reports that the government is sending rice to some areas but it is not distributing non-food items like clothing, cooking utensils etc. RIC and some smaller local NGOs are providing some clothes and other non-food items and new teams are arriving in the area every day.

Water, Sanitation and Housing
Days after the cyclone there are still potable water shortages as there is not enough coverage. The UK Disasters Emergency Committee is saying that the task of rebuilding all the houses lost to the cyclone is greater than rebuilding Birmingham… but given that more than half a million houses have been completely wiped out and another million affected severely I would say it is more like rebuilding Birmingham and Manchester.

Coordination
A bridge collapsed today, killing one person and injuring others, when crowds surged forward for a relief distribution. Union officials have lists but people don’t trust them. Some NGOs are going their own way and doing their own thing. Likewise with private companies who are not engaging with the local authorities or INGOS/NGOs.

In contrast RIC is working well with CARE International and UNDP. A UNDP team member visited RIC’s field team in order to assess them for the next round of distributions.

Infrastructure
It is reported that the electricity supply will take one month(!) to rehabilitate. Back home a month without electricity would have caused a scandal but till now the world doesn’t seem to be shocked by the devastation here.

Health
There is little access to health generally in these areas. Diarrhoea outbreaks have been reported and some medical teams are giving out public health messages and simple medicines.