Rapid Response

Payment No. 19/2007

Funds Sent To:                    Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB)

Amount Sent :                     US$ 50,000

Date:                                   13 August 2007

Details of Payment

Emergency:                           Bangladesh Floods

Date of Emergency:               July/August 2007

Implementing Members:       Christian Commission for Development in Bangladesh (CCDB)

                                             Church of Bangladesh (CoB)

                                             Koinonia

                                             Rangpur Dinajpur Rural Service (RDRS)

                                             Social Health & Education Development Board (SHED)

ACT Bangladesh Forum was formed by its five forum members (CCDB, CoB, RDRS, SHED and Koinonia) to respond to any disaster in Bangladesh of a greater magnitude in nature. It is not a formal body, but act jointly when there is any national disaster occurred in the Bangladesh. They have an unwritten understanding that if there is a disaster in the northern part of the country then RDRS will take the leadership while for middle and southern part CCDB will take the lead. They also cooperate among themselves when organizing any capacity building program mainly on Disaster Management. Particularly for 2007 emergency flood response, CCDB was requested by all other members to act as a lead agency and thereby appeal for ACT International support.

Details of the Emergency: Bangladesh has been experiencing severe flooding since the third week of July 2007.  More than 47 districts out of 63  are seriously affected and  the situation is deteriorating day by day. Cars, rickshaws, etc. have been replaced by country boats in many cities. Dhaka, the capital city, is also in danger. From an August 5 report by the Government of Bangladesh (GOB), the death toll stood at 156. Nearly 90,000 houses have been destroyed while nearly another 600,000 were damaged. 600,000 acres of crops have been destroyed and another 600,000 partially damaged.

The flooding has been so severe that it has affected all levels of society as they have lost their houses, standing crops and other assets.  But, as usual, the poorer and marginalised groups have been hit the hardest.   Communication is disrupted, medical facilities are minimal.   Diarrhoea outbreaks have been reported from many areas.

Assistance provided to date:   

The GoB has been co-ordinating the whole matter, specially at the field level, and has allocated rice and cash for the victims through district administration. They have allocated by now 14,200 MT rice/cereal and cash grant of Tk.55,000,000/- (US$820,900). At the government's initiative, the flood affected people have been given shelters in 1,175 centres. In addition, the Army has been active in many areas carrying out rescue and evacuation, medical support and embankment protection.

DFID has given $2.5 million (Taka 17 crore) of immediate aid, providing food, water, shelter and medicines for 50,000 people in the ten worst-affected districts and special assistance through the Chars Livelihoods Programme. DFID is supporting the Government of Bangladesh’s ongoing relief work, channeling $1.8 million (Taka 12 crore) aid through UNDP who is using locally-based NGOs as a network. The UK has also already authorized DFID’s own Chars Livelihoods Programme (CLP) to offer further flood relief efforts in their operation areas in five districts in the northern region up to $1 million.

Although the local structure of the government and non-government level are more or less facilitating the response,  according to the need of the large number of flood victims, their  resource/supply of aid materials is not adequate to meet the requirement of the  affected people

Proposed Assistance

Goal: to minimize the sufferings of 6400 of the most vulnerable flood affected families through providing the most urgently needed basic assistance.  The intended target group comprises flood affected people who are very poor/ destitute, landless, marginal farmers and day labourers.  Special attention will be given to widows, children, the elderly, disabled and tribal people. 

ACT members feel that a short-term emergency relief operation should be mounted in some affected areas as, although the local structure of the government and non-government level are more or less facilitating the response, the  resource/supply of aid materials is not adequate to meet the requirement of the  affected people. ACT members in Bangladesh report that the most urgently needed items are basic food items and propose to provide immediately individual family relief packs comprising: rice – 8kg; pulses – 2kg, edible oil – 1 litre; salt – 1kg; potatoes – 2kg; ORS – 5 sachets.

At the initial stage, ACT members will distribute 6400 relief packages as following :  RDRS to 1925 families, CoB to 850, Koinonia to 850, SHED Board to 850 and CCDB to 1925 making a total of 6400 families.

The packages will ensure two meals a day for at least 5 days. During floods, diarrhoea breaks out in epidemic proportions due to a lack of safe during water. In the flood area people are often compelled to drink polluted water, which causes different water borne diseases. Once the floodwaters recede, ORS is necessary to contain further attacks of  diarrhoea.

Locations of the Proposed Response:  The ACT Bangladesh members propose to undertake emergency relief activities in the following severely affected locations in their operational areas.  RDRS in the districts of Kurigram and Nilphamari;  Koinonia in Kurigram and Lalmonirhat; SHED Board in Mymenshing and Netrokona;  CCDB in Pabna, Manikganj, Barisal and Gopalganj;  Church of Bangladesh in Barisal, Faridpur, Natore and Dhaka.

BUDGET

Description	Type of Unit	Allocation per family	Unit Cost (in Tk)	No of Units/Family	Budget (in Tk)	Budget (in US$)
Rice	Kg.	8	24	6400	1,228,800	18340.30
Pulses	Kg.	2	65	6400	832,000	12417.91
Edible Oil	Litre	1	80	6400	512,000	7641.79
Salt	Kg.	1	14	6400	89,600	1337.31
Potato	Kg.	2	22	6400	281,600	4202.99
O.R.S.	Sachet	5	5	6400	160,000	2388.06
Bag	Piece	2	6	6400	76,800	1146.27
Transport & labour					150,000	2238.81
Admin					19,200	286.57
Total Estimated expenditure					3,350,000	50,000.00
1US$=Taka 67

ACTION

The ACT Co-ordinating Office  has approved the use of  US$50,000 towards the budget from its Rapid Response Fund and would be grateful  to receive contributions to wholly or partially replenish this payment.