Bangladesh is
experiencing severe monsoon flooding, the worst since the 1998 floods.
ACT members Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS), Christian Commission
for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB), Church of Bangladesh (CoB) Social
Health & Education Development (SHED) Board and KOINONIA
are all assisting the flood-affected people in their respective
working areas. However, it has become very clear that due to the worsening
situation many more people are in need of relief assistance than already
planned for and the ACT members are assessing the possibilities of
enlarging their respective relief programmes.
On 26 July, in
a meeting with NGOs, the Minister for Disaster Management and the
Minister for NGO Affairs confirmed that the government is requesting
NGOs to mobilise donor funds for flood relief, although the Government
of Bangladesh has not yet directly appealed to any foreign Government
for funding as it is still trying to face the challenge with its own
resources and with the help of NGOs. The Government also plans to
appeal to the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for grants to be used for
the rehabilitation of infrastructure such as roads which have suffered
massive damage.
Information received on 26 July from the Ministry of Disaster Management
gives the following statistics:
Affected districts:
39
Affected
area: 23,184 sq2
Families
affected: 5,549,120
People affected:
27,318,086
Crops destroyed:
1,140,928 hectares
Crop damaged:
1,100,318 hectares
People killed:
329
Livestock
lost: 17,303
Roads destroyed:
9,298 km
Roads damaged:
31,840 km
Bridges
& culverts damaged: 3,494
Schools
destroyed: 1,089
Schools
damaged: 17,595
Houses destroyed:
155,142
Houses damaged:
2,387,022
Dams: 2,301
Flood shelters
opened: 3,725
People in
flood shelter: 1,311,652
In order to discuss
and co-ordinate the implementation of the joint appeal to assist 10,000
flood affected family members, 11 representatives from the Bangladesh
ACT members attended an ACT Forum meeting on 25 July 2004. The Forum
agreed to proceed with joint purchases of relief items (a five-member
Purchase Committee has been formed comprising a staff from each member).
The costs that were previously allocated to transportation (Tk.500,000)
will now be used for food purchases - with this additional amount
a further 1,204 packages can be procured. Transportation expenses
will be covered from overhead costs.
Due
to the severity of the flooding it was also agreed that a request
for a revision of the current appeal (ASBD41) will be sent to ACT
CO.
RDRS Bangladesh
has in the meantime utilised its own emergency resources, along with
some funding from ACT International and also received assurance of
funding from Norwegian Church Aid (NCA). It is looking at the possibilities
of expanding the relief activities and will sent an additional proposal
for relief and rehabilitation should the situation warrant.
CCDB reported
that most of their project areas, including those of the CCDB networking
partners, have been severely affected. Considering the current situation,
CCDB is preparing a separate (individual) appeal to the ACT Alliance
which will include both emergency relief and emergency rehabilitation
programmes i.e. agricultural assistance, partial housing assistance
and job creation.
SHED and CoB has
also indicated they will forward a separate proposal to the ACT CO
should the situation warrant.
KOINONIA’S relief
team is still working in Lalmonirhat district and has started food
distribution and medical services in Dhaka city's two relief camps.
KOINONIA will have further discussions before deciding whether to
expand their relief activities.
Individual proposals
coming from the ACT Forum Bangladesh will be co-ordinated as much
as possible with other ACT Forum members.
