Reducing Climate Hazards of Sundarbans Community

Bangladesh is a disaster-prone country of an area of about 1,47,570 sq. km. with a population nearing 140 million. It is predominantly an agricultural country. Most of the people of this country are very poor. The geographic location of the country is not so favorable. It is located in a disaster vulnerable area and due to this Bangladesh becomes the worst victim of natural calamities causing colossal loss of lives and properties. Major disasters that occur in Bangladesh are: tropical cyclone, tidal bore, flood, tornado, river bank erosion, earthquake etc. A large number of poor people are to live in vulnerable areas of the southern part of Bangladesh. The adverse impacts of all the natural hazards are affecting socio-economic conditions.

Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) is a nonprofit, non-political community-based development organization which has been working since 2010 to promote ecological balance and create harmony between human and nature. Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation is one of the main thematic areas of BEDS. BEDS has been working on Community Managed Disaster Risk Reduction (CMDRR) activities in the Sundarbans region since 2016. BEDS has established a “Cyclone Shelter and Training Center” adjacent to the Sundarbans mangrove forest for the safety of local people. BEDS has formed a village disaster management committee, provided CMDRR training to the committee members, established emergency fund for the villagers, improved local peoples capacity on assessing their capacity and vulnerability, established signaling system, provided safety materials among the villagers, protected embankment by bamboo fencing and mangrove plantation and provided alternative livelihoods to the villagers of Mathurapur under Munshigonj union of Shyamnagar sub district of Satkhira district of Bangladesh.

In the coastal region every year lots of houses are destroyed due to the devastation of storms and cyclones. That results in huge life and economic loss. Concerning this, BEDS has made a design of climate adaptive house using local equipment with the suggestion of experts. BEDS regularly provides training and suggestions to the local climatic vulnerable people on climate adaptive housing. BEDS trying heart and soul to mitigate the disaster risks of coastal vulnerable people.

Recently BEDS is trying to raise funds through the GlobalGiving platform for the project entitled “Reducing Disaster Risks of the Sundarbans Coastal People”. We want to help the flood affected people under this project. Total budget size of the project is 50,000 USD. We would like to raise all of the project funds by 2020. So, our heartfelt request to you all to stand with this most disaster vulnerable communities in the world, so that they can live a happy and secure life from the attacks of destructive disasters.

From early June 2020, monsoon-related floods have devastated millions of people in low lying areas of Northern, north-eastern and south-eastern districts of Bangladesh. Mainly 80 percent of Bangladesh’s rain falls happens during monsoon season (June to October). Monsoon rains typically cause some level of flooding, but officials said this flooding may be the worst in a decade and the longest-lasting since 1988. “A third of Bangladesh is under water after some of the heaviest rains in a decade”, Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) official have said. The Disaster Management and Relief Ministry warned that 23 districts would be affected by the floods.

Till now around 161 people have lost their lives to the ongoing floods in Bangladesh, mostly from drowning, according to government data. Most of the flood affected areas people are severely lacking of pure drinking water, as most of the drinking water sources were drown into the flood water. Water-borne diseases like diarrhoea, skin-disease, eye-inflammation, bronchitis have affected nearly 28,000 people in the flood-hit areas. They include more than 10,000 diarrhoea patients.

Many flood protections structures, such as embankments and dykes, were already damaged from monsoon floods in recent years; the typical recovery cycle is usually three to five years. The country is also recovering from Cyclone Amphan, which hit the country’s coast in May 2020. And the COVID-19 pandemic has constrained response efforts. In addition, this recent flood would be devastating for the people of Bangladesh.

In this hard time of people, we would like to be with them with little support from our side. Bangladesh Environment and Development Society (BEDS) is a nonprofit, non-political community-based development organization which has been working since 2010 to promote ecological balance and create harmony between human and nature. Disaster risk reduction and climate change adaptation is one of the main thematic areas of BEDS. So, in this hard time, we want to provide assistance to vulnerable families in flooded parts of Bangladesh who have lost their homes or livelihoods with global communities’ donation as BEDS fully depends on the foreign funding and donation for its development activities.

Recently BEDS is trying to raise fund through GlobalGiving platform for a project entitled “Reducing Disaster Risks of the Sundarbans Coastal People”. We want to help the flood affected people under this project. Total budget size of the project is 50,000 USD. We would like to raise all of the project fund by 2020.

So, our heartfelt request to all global communities to stand with the Bangladeshi flood affected people in this hard time. We believe that it is very necessary to work together in this cataclysmic situation, so that we could end the enduring of thousands of flood affected families.