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BARISAL, Apr 5 (UNB): More than 10 million people in coastal areas of the country remain vulnerable to cyclone and other natural calamities for lack of cyclone shelter centres.
It is feared that there might be huge casualties if any severe cyclone hits the country.
According to Cyclone Preparedness Programme (CPP) office in Barisal, some 35 million people live in 147 upazilas of 19 coastal districts.
Of those, 31 upazilas are considered as high-risk cyclone-prone areas (HRCPA) with more than 15 million people, who are under close supervision of the CPP projects.
There are only 1841 cyclone shelter centres (CSC) in these high-risk areas, including 401 in Cox's Bazar, 161 in Patuakhali, 42 in Barguna, 26 in Jhalakathi, 62 in Barisal, 31 in Pirojpur, 198 in Noakhali, 106 in Feni, seven in Bagerhat, 28 in Satkhira, 152 in Bhola, 497 in Chittagong and 34 in Khulna districts.
Of these cyclone centres, 265 were constructed in 1965 and during the 1972-'79 period, and most of them are now unusable for lack of proper maintenance.
Of the remaining 1,576 cyclone centres, including 462 in 15 upazilas of greater Barisal-Khulna region and 1,114 in 16 upazilas of greater Chittagong-Noakhali region are more or less useable, but they have the capacity to give temporary shelter to highest 2.0 million people.
Of the remaining 13 million inhabitants of the high-risk areas, only 3.0 million have the alternative facilities like educational institutions and government offices to take shelter during violent storm and tidal wave.
But 10 million people, according to concerned sources, have to live on the mercy of nature and destiny without any shelter during storm, cyclone or tidal surge.
Most of the people living in the cyclone-prone areas are very poor and they earn their livelihoods through agricultural work on various shoals, fishing and collecting firewood, and their number is increasing each passing day.
But for them there is hardly any shelter available during natural calamities.
Locals recall that only one female resident at Nijhumdwip in Hatia upazila of Noakhali survived in the cyclone and tidal surge of 1970. In the 1991 cyclone over 5,000 people lost their lives there.
But still for 20,000 people of Nijhumdwip there are only four cyclone centres with a capacity to provide shelter to only 8,000 people.
For more than 50,000 inhabitants of Dublarchar in Khulna coastal area, there are only four cyclone shelters having the capacity to house only 8000 people.
"More worrying aspect is that Kuakata cyclone centre is used as rest house of LGED and is rarely open to public, not even during disasters," said an official requesting anonymity.
Some cyclone centres in remote areas of Bhola, Barguna, Patuakhali, Laxmipur districts and other places are being used by drug traders and terrorists as their dens, it was alleged.
According to an estimate, the allocation made in the name of cyclone preparedness programme and disaster management for the people of the coastal belt is Tk 1.0 per head a year.
After the death of 138,000 people in the coastal and offshore areas in the 1991 cyclone, the government formed a committee, headed by Jamilur Reza Chowdhury, to assess the safety measures of the coastal people.
The committee suggested construction of at least 3,500 cyclone shelters in the coastal areas to accommodate people during cyclones, tidal surge, flood and other natural calamities.
In 1986, the concerned ministry submitted a plan to build the cyclone centres at an estimated cost of Tk 20 billion (2000 core), but the plan was never executed.
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