By Stephanie Fisher, BRAC intern in Bangladesh
As part of my Masters course in Global Health at Trinity College, Dublin, I have spent the last two months as an intern at BRAC, collecting primary data for my thesis on drinking water storage and treatment in rural Bangladesh. Having completed my data collection I thought that I would make the most of my time here, and left Dhaka to spend two weeks traveling around the country with my parents, who had come out to visit. It was in this respect that I found myself in Mongla (port city in Southeastern Bangladesh) on Monday 25th May, the day that Cyclone Aila hit.
We had been scheduled to go to the Sundarbans that day, but due to the government-issued warning not to go out onto the river, we spent the majority of the day inside out hotel room looking out at the rising water and increasingly strong gales. The hotel was a little way outside of the town centre, so we didn’t see the destruction caused in Mongla itself, but could see sturdy-looking trees being tossed about in the incredible winds, and any little fishing boat determined enough to be out on the river, struggling to make any headway in the very choppy waters.
Being in our robust hotel, without electricity or water but protected from the winds by thick walls and glass windows, we did not realize the extent of the damage until the following day when we were able to get out onto the river in a motor boat and to travel a little way into the Sundarbans. In so doing we passed several small villages on the river banks. It looked as if one house in every five had been completely flattened by the gale-force winds, and an additional one-in-five had partially collapsed or was severely structurally damaged. Groups of villagers seemed to be standing surveying the destruction while others were scouring the wreckages, presumably for lost items.
Returning from our boat trip a couple of hours later, the tide had come in and much of the village was now completely submerged. The paths that, two hours earlier, had connected different houses to one another were now inexistent, and the houses themselves were on isolated islands of mud. Likewise, the paddy fields that we had seen on either side of the main road to Mongla on the 24th of May, now, as we drove back in the opposite direction on our way to Bagerhat, were completely submerged. A few of the dykes that had separated the fields were underwater, and the little wooden stilted huts that are scattered across the fields were either half-submerged or now only a few feet above the surface.
Of course this area of Bangladesh only caught the edge of the cyclone, and came off comparatively lightly compared to other areas in the main path of the storm. Despite this, and despite the fact that we were not there to assess the damage but were merely bystanders caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, we certainly got a feel for destruction that Aila caused. Now that I am back in Dhaka and reading the figures in the news, I am so glad that BRAC, as always, has sprung into action and is now tirelessly helping the people affected by providing the necessary water, food and shelter, and helping them getting their lives back together again. BRAC truly is an amazing organization, and I am so grateful that I have been able to get experience of its invaluable work through my few months out here.
As part of my Masters course in Global Health at Trinity College, Dublin, I have spent the last two months as an intern at BRAC, collecting primary data for my thesis on drinking water storage and treatment in rural Bangladesh. Having completed my data collection I thought that I would make the most of my time here, and left Dhaka to spend two weeks traveling around the country with my parents, who had come out to visit. It was in this respect that I found myself in Mongla (port city in Southeastern Bangladesh) on Monday 25th May, the day that Cyclone Aila hit.
We had been scheduled to go to the Sundarbans that day, but due to the government-issued warning not to go out onto the river, we spent the majority of the day inside out hotel room looking out at the rising water and increasingly strong gales. The hotel was a little way outside of the town centre, so we didn’t see the destruction caused in Mongla itself, but could see sturdy-looking trees being tossed about in the incredible winds, and any little fishing boat determined enough to be out on the river, struggling to make any headway in the very choppy waters.
Being in our robust hotel, without electricity or water but protected from the winds by thick walls and glass windows, we did not realize the extent of the damage until the following day when we were able to get out onto the river in a motor boat and to travel a little way into the Sundarbans. In so doing we passed several small villages on the river banks. It looked as if one house in every five had been completely flattened by the gale-force winds, and an additional one-in-five had partially collapsed or was severely structurally damaged. Groups of villagers seemed to be standing surveying the destruction while others were scouring the wreckages, presumably for lost items.
Returning from our boat trip a couple of hours later, the tide had come in and much of the village was now completely submerged. The paths that, two hours earlier, had connected different houses to one another were now inexistent, and the houses themselves were on isolated islands of mud. Likewise, the paddy fields that we had seen on either side of the main road to Mongla on the 24th of May, now, as we drove back in the opposite direction on our way to Bagerhat, were completely submerged. A few of the dykes that had separated the fields were underwater, and the little wooden stilted huts that are scattered across the fields were either half-submerged or now only a few feet above the surface.
Of course this area of Bangladesh only caught the edge of the cyclone, and came off comparatively lightly compared to other areas in the main path of the storm. Despite this, and despite the fact that we were not there to assess the damage but were merely bystanders caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, we certainly got a feel for destruction that Aila caused. Now that I am back in Dhaka and reading the figures in the news, I am so glad that BRAC, as always, has sprung into action and is now tirelessly helping the people affected by providing the necessary water, food and shelter, and helping them getting their lives back together again. BRAC truly is an amazing organization, and I am so grateful that I have been able to get experience of its invaluable work through my few months out here.
0 comments:
Post a Comment