The sight of misery of the people in Bangladesh is more overpowering than the cyclone Sidr which took everything away from them, including food, land and their loved ones. The fields in which they used to grow rice have turned into graveyards of floating bodies.

The Cyclone Sidr is now over. But the spectre of hunger and epidemics is now haunting Bangladesh’s ravaged coast. Tens of thousands of survivors are now struggling for basic necessities.

One of the survivors told us: “I have lost everything. I have no food, no clothes and no home: nothing. You can’t even imagine the conditions we are now living in. I can’t even explain it to you."

Inaccessible areas

Relief activities are underway, but there are still many remote communities in southern Bangladesh where it is difficult for aid workers to deliver goods. The roads are blocked and the telephone lines have been cut.

But one relief worker in the area said that they had been working despite the difficult conditions: “We were not able to reach this area yesterday as the roads were blocked. But finally today we reached here, and are distributing relief goods to survivors.” However, some relief workers said that it might take up to two weeks to reach more remote areas.

The cyclone, with winds as powerful as 250 kilometres per hour, swept in from the Bay of Bengal and crossed the Khulna-Barisal coast late on November 15. It weakened as it moved inland toward north-east India.

Domestic and international aid

A government early-warning system is being credited with saving many lives, but the damage to property and crops has been massive. Officials say that in many areas, 95% of rice which was awaiting harvest, has been destroyed, and shrimp farms and other crops were simply washed away.

Bangladesh’s relief advisor Tapan Chaudry has asked all political parties to come together and help the government in the relief operations: “I want to urge all political parties to forget about their internal political conflicts, and to join hands to rescue the people of Bangladesh from this catastrophe.”

Meanwhile, the United Nations food aid agency has appealed for more aid to help save lives in Bangladesh. Germany, Sweden, the United States, Japan, Saudi Arabia and the United Kingdom have pledged millions of dollars in donations to aid relief efforts.