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Christian agencies Caritas Bangladesh and World Vision are providing emergency aid for victims of Cyclone Aila, which killed around 50 people and washed away thousands of homes on May 25.
“Our assessment teams are on the ground. We may go for further interventions based on assessment reports,” said Benedict Alo D’Rozario, executive director of World Vision Bangladesh on May 26.
World Vision, an international Christian relief, development and advocacy organization, distributed dried food for 211 people, who had taken refuge in cyclone shelters. The storm sent four-meter-high tidal waves crashing over coastal areas.
People living in India’s West Bengal and Bangladesh coastal regions were the worst hit by the storm.
“The situation in some ways is worse than the effect of Cyclone Sidr,” said Tapon Kumar Mondol, manager of the World Vision Laudobe Area Development Programme in Khulna district.
Cyclone Sidr, one of the strongest storms ever to hit Bangladesh, killed between 5,000 and 10,000 in 2007.
“Because of high tidal waves, most of the houses in the area have been washed away. People returning from cyclone shelters could not even identify their homes,” Mondol told UCA News by mobile phone.
“At the moment, the crying need is for drinking water because most of the freshwater ponds have been filled with saltwater. So our immediate priority is to provide drinking water, too,” Mondol said.
Because of the extreme salinity of underground water in the region, people living in Laudobe and Mongla in southern Bangladesh depend on rainwater stored in ponds and in smaller quantities at home.
Caritas, the local bishops’ social service wing, is distributing flattened rice, locally called chira, and molasses or gur, in the Khulna and Barisal regions, in the south of the country.
Both Caritas and World Vision, along with government and non-government organizations, alerted people and helped evacuate them to cyclone shelters before the storm hit. Volunteers from the two organizations rushed into at-risk locations and issued warning messages using loudspeakers.
Two World Vision water-purifying units are now on the field, each of which has the capacity to supply 10,000 liters of drinking water daily.
Assessment teams from government and non-government organizations are also measuring the scale of the damage.
The Bengali language “Daily Jugantor” reported on May 26 that the cyclone killed at least 22 Bangladeshis and more than 25 people in West Bengal. The English language “Daily Star” reported that more than 500 people are missing, mostly fishermen who were in the Bay of Bengal when the storm struck.
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Caritas, World Vision offer storm aid (UCA News)
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