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Bangladesh seeks 1.15 bln dollars for cyclone victims
Dhaka (AFP) July 19, 2009 Bangladesh made an international appeal Sunday for 1.15 billion dollars to help one million families affected by Cyclone Aila that hit the country and part of India in May. Food and Disaster Management Minister Abdur Razzak made the appeal at a meeting with envoys of foreign missions in Dhaka and donors such as the World Bank and the Asian Development Bank. "The response was quite positive," Razzak told AFP. The cyclone, which unleashed a 12-foot (four-metre) high tidal surge, battered southern Bangladesh and West Bengal in India on May 25, killing almost 300 people. The storm destroyed 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) of roads and embankments, according to government figures. Affected areas are still being flooded on a daily basis at high tide, resulting in contaminated drinking water. The minister said the money was needed to repair the damaged embankments, roads and educational institutions, construct houses for homeless people and build 800 new cyclone shelter centres. He said 100,000 poor villagers had been living on embankments and roads since the cyclone washed away their homes. International charities say the number of homeless could be around 375,000. "We told them that we need the money for long-term rehabilitation of cyclone victims and to protect our coastal people from the onslaught of climate change," he said. Cyclone Aila came 18 months after 3,500 people were killed when a super cyclone, called Sidr, hit the same region. Razzak said the frequency of cyclones lashing the South Asian country and their severity have increased due to global warming. Bangladesh is one of the world's poorest countries with 40 percent of its people living on less than one dollar a day. Half of the country's annual development expenditure is financed by donors and development lenders. Share This Article With Planet Earth
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