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Download PDF It was raining for two days. The weather was not so bearable for fifty-seven-year old Lalmeher Begum of Southkhali who is an asthmatic patient. On the first day, all stuffs she had in her torn tent got soaked. The next day the floor submerged.
Lalmeher was taking preparations to move elsewhere, may be to the nearby school building when she heard someone from Dhaka was talking with people and writing their names. With high hopes, she rushed to that tea stall.
“Are you writing names?” Lalmeher, the skinny, old woman, wearing a wet torn saree, asked breathlessly. “Please jot my name on your list. The situation is so tough here. How can we survive under this torn tent during the rains?” she asked.
“My tent is inundated and I am fasting, as the hearth is under water. When will we get housing?” she asked.
This is not the first time Southkhali people asked someone to enlist them. People from government or non-government offices, foreigners, and members of law enforcement agencies repeatedly came here and wrote down names of Lalmeher, Monira, Shahjahan Hawlader, Moqbul Hossain, Hasan and many others.
As the worst-hit area of cyclone Sidr where over 300 died in a single village on November 15 last year, Southkhali union drew much attention both from home and abroad.
Different national-international non-government organisations and foreign missions [India, Saudi Arabia] promised the victims to rebuild their houses and rehabilitate them. These people are still waiting.
They now live under the tents provided by the US navy just after the cyclone and depend on only 15kg of rice provided by the government under VGF (vulnerable group feeding) programme.
“Saudi Arabia wanted to build 4,000 houses in Southkhali. They were supposed to start construction three months ago. India also wanted to do the same but I don’t know why it’s getting late,” said Shahidul Islam, deputy commissioner of Bagerhat.
“Many NGOs wanted to conduct rehabilitation programmes in Southkhali. But we didn’t allow them knowing foreign funds were underway,” he added.
Nothing has happened so far and the helpless people are still suffering out there.
Not a single house was seen in liveable shape during a visit to Southkhali on Friday. People are living in either tents or tent-like corrugated tin-shed structures.
Shahjahan Hawlader, a former Union Parishad member, said his family was fasting until noon as they could not cook.
“Water always enters the hearth if it rains heavily,” he said.
However, many of the Southkhali residents don’t have much to cook every day either.
“Most of our dwellers used to depend on the Sundarbans. But this year the government has imposed a ban on entering the Sidr-ruined forest. Now all they can do is fishing to earn a living,” said Shahjahan.
Amid this dire situation, different microcredit lenders including Brac, Grameen Bank, ASA and Pradipan have started taking premiums of their loans, said locals.
“They had stopped collecting the premiums for four months. But now they are active again, whereas people have yet to be rehabilitated,” said Anwar Hossain Panchayet, chairman of Southkhali Union Parishad.
“Even people don’t have accommodation to live, how can they pay the premiums for microcredit?” he asked.
Many of the villagers said they took loans from several NGOs at the same time and are now under pressure to pay the premiums.
“They are also considering our situation by taking half-premium if we are unable to pay the full,” said Ali Haider, husband of Shahida, who took loans from Brac, ASA and Grameen Bank for her husband’s business.
Army personnel provided the fishermen with some fishing boats and nets and the farmers with some cattle. But fishing is not going good this year.
“This is the season of hilsha. But this year hilsha fishing is not yielding good profit,” said a fisherman while repairing his net by the Baleshawar rive flowing by Southkhali.
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