While the country celebrates Eid-ul-Azha, the joy of it evades the people of Rekhamari village in Sundarbans who were recently hit by cyclone Remal.
They lost almost all of their belongings when the waters in river Pashur swelled during the cyclone beyond the cautionary levels on 26 May and flowed over Banishanta localities, including Rekhamari, which is located 42km south of Khulna city.
In a recent visit, the people of the salinity-prone area were seen still suffering from severe scarcity of fresh water, food, shelter, and sanitation facilities - two more than weeks after the cyclone hit.
58-year-old Insan Bepari, a fisherman, lamented, “We are poor. In the previous Eids, the male residents of this village would roam around Khulna city and collect donated meat from sacrificial animals. But this year, we have lost even our earthen stoves. Where and how will we cook the meat?”
The cyclone blew away the thatched roof, while the strong tidal surges washed out the bamboo structure and all household belongings of his cottage.
Like Insan, around 65 river-based families in Rekhamari had to endure moderate to severe impacts of the 26 May cyclone.
Families living there are very poor and relies on forest resources like fish and crabs from the Sundarbans.
Photo: Noor-A-Alam/BFirst
Every time there is a cyclone or river erosion, they have to rely on relief to survive. Unfortunately, this time, they didn’t yet get the necessary relief.
“So far, we have been given 1 kg of puffed rice, 1 kg of flattened rice, half a litre of cooking oil, and half a kg of salt. For the last couple of days, an NGO has been providing us with one meal a day,” said Roksana Begum.
Standing on the fragile foreshore of the Pashur river, 46-year-old Roksana pointed to an eroded part of the river bank where she had a cottage for living.
When cyclone Remal made landfall along the southwest coast of Bangladesh, Roksana and her boatman husband Nazrul Sikder dared to stay at their cottage only to protect their belongings.
Bore that, they had sent their children to a nearby cyclone shelter.
“The roof of our home had already blown away. The river water level rose to my chest height. All the belongings, including our bed, were underwater. The tidal surges with strong currents made it very difficult for us to stay inside the house. We swam over to a nearby plinth for emergency shelter. The cyclone centre was already packed at that time,” she added.
“We found everything was lost when we returned to this place the next day (27 May),” Roksana said.
Photo: Noor-A-Alam/BFirst
Among the household items, the family had a semi-double bed, an 80W solar PV system, an earthen stove, and a pit latrine. All were gone. A 500-litre plastic water tank for harvesting rainwater of the family also went missing after the cyclone.
However, Roksana’s neighbours recovered it from while it was floating on the river.
Reinstallation of the water tank would be costly, so Roksana’s family left it abandoned.
Being uprooted, Roksana, along with her other family members, has now taken shelter at her father Anwar Munshi’s house.
The cyclone-driven tidal surges eroded the earthen floor of Anwar’s tin-shed cottage too.
Tidal surges washed out all the household belongings including the rainwater carrying jars.
Some discarded plastic pots filled with saline river water were seen in front of Anwar’s house.
His wife Rajia Begum said, “Our face and limbs burn if we use saline water.”
Photo: Noor-A-Alam/BFirst
Still, the families in Rekhamari village have stored the saline river water in pots, hoping that soon they will get water purifying tablets as aid.
For sanitation and washing their remaining clothes, they source water directly from the river.
Amid severe water scarcity, the villagers were seen struggling to collect drinking water from a treatment plant located 1km from the village.
“Our toilets were washed away. Now we use open toilets, covering the hanging platforms with rags. We wash ourselves with this intolerable saline water. Our lives have become miserable,” Rajia said.
Life became even more difficult for the villagers as the forest department imposed a three-month entry restriction into the Sundarbans—their main source of income.
Like Roksana and Rajia, a 26-year-old Kulsum Khatun shared how her family has been impacted by the cyclone. Leaving no signs of any structure, cyclone Remal totally destroyed Kulsum’s riverside home.
To rebuild their residence, the family badly needed a lump sum of money. But entry to the Sundarbans has been restricted.
Kulsum said, “My husband has been deprived of restriction-time food allowance entitled for the fishermen. So, he has gone to Khulna city for serving day labour.”
Photo: Noor-A-Alam/BFirst
Grassroots-level administration distributes disaster-time relief among the affected families.
When spoken to, Banishanta Union Parishad Chairman Sudeb Kumar Roy about the Rekhamari village situation, he said that a list of cyclone-affected families was made.
“Every affected family will be given 10kg of rice. We are trying our best to distribute the relief before Eid day,” Sudeb told Bangladesh First on 15 June.
He added that Rekhamari villagers are very poor and the relief from the government side is not adequate.
“We are requesting NGOs and other philanthropists to come forward for the poor people,” Sudeb said.
Photo: Noor-A-Alam/BFirst
