Cyclone Aila

One year on

With the help of local partners, Oxfam is providing assistance to nearly 110,000 people in Khulna and Shatkhira districts in the south-west Bangladesh.

In the immediate aftermath of the cyclone, we provided emergency shelter materials and soaps, oral rehydration salts, sanitary cloths and household items to the worst affected families.

A year since Cyclone Aila hit, we are helping ensure that communities living on the broken embankments have access to clean water and sanitation facilities to prevent the spread of disease. We are currently providing around 12,000 litres of water a day to some of the worst affected communities.

Our work also includes installing and repairing tube wells, cleaning and re-excavating ponds, and building latrines and washing areas for women.

Oxfam is working with 250 local Community Health Volunteers to raise awareness about basic hygiene and sanitation. Our work focuses on the safe collection, storage, and usage of drinking water, the use and maintenance of hygienic latrines, and maintaining personal hygiene.

Through our special cash-for-work programme, we are providing people with a much needed income by employing them to repair the damaged embankments, roads and other community assets. We also are providing professional tools such as fishing boats, nets, carpentry tools and honey collecting materials to affected people.

In pictures: Daliluddin's story

Another element of our programme has included distributing cash grants to selected families who lost their means of making a living when the cyclone hit.

Besides distributing temporary shelters to people living on the embankments we are also providing transitional shelters to communities affected by the cyclone.

Over the last year we have continued to lobby the local and national government to take immediate steps to reconstruct damaged embankments to protect communities and their land from saline water. Oxfam is lobbying the Bangladesh government and international community for longer-term initiatives to rebuild the affected areas and help communities be better prepared for future disasters.

Donate now to the Cyclone Aila emergency response

On the ground

Around 1 milion women, men, and children lost their homes to Cyclone Aila which caused substantial damage across areas of southern Bangladesh and West Bengal.

In pictures: The impact of Cyclone Aila

In southern Bangladesh, the cyclone caused a tidal surge which broke through poorly maintained coastal embankments. People living on the coastal villages in south western districts, especially in Satkhira and Khulna, were forced to flee to raised embankments when their houses and crop fields were submerged under water.

On film

Bangladeshi pop singer Parvez calls for help for people affected by Cyclone Aila

An uncertain future

After the cyclone, the government and the donor agencies promised to help reconstruct the embankments. However, a year after the cyclone hit, around 100,000 people remain homeless, sheltering on embankments in very difficult conditions. This is largely because of the very slow rate of progress of embankment reconstruction work.

Water shortages are a crude reality among the affected communities. Many, including children and women, are forced to travel between two and 10 kilometres daily on foot or by boat to collect drinking water.

Even though many emergency latrines have been installed in areas affected by the cyclone, people still need more sanitation facilities. Health related problems, especially skin diseases and diarrhea, are particularly common among cyclone victims.

The delay in embankment reconstruction has also limited people’s livelihood options and means of making a living.

In pictures: Daliluddin's story

With the monsoon season fast approaching, thousands of homeless families living under open sky are facing an uncertain and risky future.

Update: May 2010