KHULNA, Bangladesh (November 22, 2007) - CARE is dramatically increasing its distribution of emergency food packages and essential survival materials to the thousands of people left homeless by Cyclone Sidr. Early in the week, CARE staffers opened up several distribution points and delivered food packages to 1,000 families, or roughly 5,000 people. On Thursday, food and essential non-food items were delivered to another 2,569 families in some of the worst hit areas. By the end of next week, CARE expects to have scaled up its distribution system and to have provided emergency relief packages to 13,000 families.
"Cyclone Sidr is a unique emergency," says Dr. Musa Mohammad, CARE's regional coordinator for Asia. "Because of better emergency preparedness, the death toll was lower than previous cyclones, but the level of human suffering is still very high. Many of the survivors have lost their homes, their jobs, and their crops, which were just about to be harvested. The long-term challenge is for them to regain their normal lives. CARE has made a commitment to scale up our response as rapidly as possible."
In the current distribution, each family receives 34 kilograms (76 lbs.) of rice, potatoes, salt and other essential items. Non-food items include plastic sheets and rope to help construct temporary shelters, and basic items such as soap and candles. CARE had been expecting to deliver much of the food by boat, but a car ferry at a critical river crossing has now been repaired so deliveries can be made by truck.
CARE cleaned and repaired repaired a common water tank serving safe drinking water to 2,000 families. In addition, CARE has provided a mobile water purfication plant, capable of filtering more than 10,000 liters a day. It is now supporting at least 800 families, or roughly 4,000 people per day. CARE plans to get other plants up and running as soon as possible.
CARE has five medical teams with doctors from Dhaka's Community Hospital running clinics. On Thursday, the teams treated more than 1,250 people. There are plans to expand to 25 teams.
CARE is asking for increased funding to mount a larger and more comprehensive response. While CARE has used its own emergency funding to provide immediate relief, the scale of the emergency means that substantial help from donors and the public will be needed to reach enough people fast enough to save lives.
In the long term, CARE wants to help develop systems that will better protect Bangladesh's at-risk population from future disasters. "Unless we reduce their vulnerability," says Dr. Musa Mohammed, "This will happen again."
Update:
- The official death toll has risen to 3,243, with the number of affected people estimated at 7 million, or 1.6 million families.
- The international community is urged to move quickly and effectively to avert an even bigger disaster in the form of waterborne and nutritional crisis.
- A recent assessment by the government has resulted in upwardly increased estimates in damage to infrastructure, crops, livestock and trees.
- Up to 95% of the rice crop, which was ready to be harvested, has been damaged in 11 coastal districts. Shrimp farms along the coast have been washed away, along with other crops.
- Not only have farmers and fishermen been adversely affected, but day laborers have been deprived of their main earning season. One of the world's largest mangrove forests, the Sundarbans, took the full force of the storm, and there is concern about environmental damage.
Learn more about Cyclone Sidr, read stories of survival, and hear about CARE's work in Bangladesh:
:
Bangladesh: William Dowell, CARE, +41 79 590 3047
Atlanta: Lurma Rackley, CARE USA,
lrackley@care.org, (404) 979-9450
