India is highly vulnerable to natural disasters including cyclones, floods, earthquakes and drought; strengthening people’s resilience to natural disasters is an essential part of the humanitarian effort.
Three protracted crises, Jammu & Kashmir, the North-Eastern States and Naxal-affected areas in central India have created emergency needs. Years of conflict have displaced populations and left many without means to provide for themselves. Providing protection, health and nutrition remains a priority.
This time last year I was travelling to Bangladesh to the coastal areas to see Islamic Relief Bangladesh Climate Adaptation Livelihoods projects. Looking back, the people I met along the way have truly touched my life in ways more than I ever imagined .
Authored By : Usha Dewani Das
In 2009, Cyclone Aila caused significant damage to livelihoods in the Sunderbans. While saline soil is subversive to agriculture in the area, integrated farming gives many the courage to start afresh.
16,755 people affected by Aila benefitted from the comprehensive recovery efforts
265 families benefited from core family shelters
30 deep tub-wells and 250 rainwater collection ponds were created to collect freshwater
3 km of embankments were rebuilt to protect against floods; 3km of afforestation implemented to protect against soil degradation/landslides
Mohammad Alomgir, of Islamic Relief Bangladesh, was amongst the first to respond in the aftermath of Cyclone Aila, which devastated communities in Bangladesh five years ago. He blogs on how people are still suffering half a decade later, and what the international community should be doing to prepare vulnerable countries for future disasters.
SUBMITTED BY MUTHUKUMARA MANI ON WED, 05/07/2014
By Mahin Rashid and Troy Beckman
After losing everything in Cyclone Aila, farmers use flood- and salt-tolerant seeds to resurrect rice paddies.
Mohammad Mofizul Islam Gazi is a farmer and father of two living on the front lines of climate change in southern Bangladesh—one of the most vulnerable areas in all of Asia to cyclones and sea level rise.
Less than five years since a powerful tropical cyclone devastated swathes of India and Bangladesh, Islamic Relief reports on how one Bangladeshi community is looking forward to a greener and more disaster-resilient future.
In 2009,Cyclone Aila destroyed homes and livelihoods in Dakkhin Bedkasi village. It also devastated the environment, which is central to communities in Bangladesh’s remote south-west. Trees were torn up, leaving the landscape completely denuded. People were forced out of their homesteads along the river embankment, and away from their traditional way of life.
By Robert Stefanicki
KHULNA, Bangladesh, Oct 25 2013 (IPS) - It has been four years since Cyclone Aila struck Bangladesh, triggering floods and widespread destruction. But the villagers of Koira subdistrict, among the worst affected of the 11 districts hit by the cyclone, are yet to recover from its impact.
The Jaman family was among the 41,043 families in Koira affected by Aila. Like most of their neighbours, they remained homeless for eight months, surviving on supplies from humanitarian organisations.
Assisting the victims of natural disasters, India being highly vulnerable to cyclones, floods, earthquakes and droughts remains a priority. .
Alleviating the emergency needs arising from three protracted crises:
Jammu & Kashmir, the North-Eastern States, and Naxal-affected areas in central India, with a special emphasis on protection, health and nutrition remains a must.
A notable achievement by the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BDRCS)/ the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) was the very first photography exhibition on Red Cross Red Crescent works titled Mindscape held in Dhaka on 8 May 2012 in celebration of World Red Cross Red Crescent day. This event showcased disaster management and rehabilitation works that have been carried out over the years since 1971 war in Bangladesh.
With the global population exceeding 7 billion, the earth’s resources are under increasing strain, resulting in more crises and people needing help than ever before. In response, the Red Cross has evolved its approach to providing aid.
As the numbers rise – more conflict over limited resources, more weather-related disasters, more poverty and food crises – the Red Cross is bridging relief aid and development for a more sustainable future.
This report covers the period 1 January to 30 June 2012
A massive cyclone which hit Bangladesh in May 2009 is still having a devastating effect on the lives of many people in the country three years after the event, international humanitarian agency Oxfam said today.
To coincide with the three year mark, Oxfam is appealing for the Government of Bangladesh and the international community to provide additional funding to support an estimated 50,000 people still affected in the Southwest of the country.
This report covers the period 1 January 2011 to 31 December 2011
By Brigitte Leoni
BANGKOK, 2 April 2012 - A visit to a disaster-resilient habitat in Bangladesh has prompted UNISDR Chief Margareta Wahlström to acknowledge the south Asian country as leading developing nations in the global fight against climate change impacts.
The story of livelihoods destroyed by cyclone and floods in 2009 represents in microcosm the threat from climate change to low-lying Bangladesh
Read the full article in the Guardian.
Jan. 26, 2012
PATHORKHALI, Bangladesh – Shahanara Begum beams as she works the pump lifting water from the village pond into a new sand filter that creates clean drinking water for many people in her village and nearby areas.
Shahanara Begum is proud to be one of seven women who maintains the filter, but she is especially happy to have clean drinking water within a hundred yards of her house. Before the filter was placed in June 2011, all the women of Pathorkhali village had to walk several miles and pay for pump water or make do with murky pond water.