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Cyclone victims homeless
24/12/2007 13:03 - (SA)
Dhaka, Bangladesh - More than one million people who survived tropical Cyclone Sidr need basic shelter five weeks after the storm slammed into Bangladesh and killed more than 3 300 people, the Red Cross said.
The November 15 cyclone destroyed or damaged more than 1.5 million houses, and there has been a serious shortfall of funds to address these needs, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said in a statement received on Sunday.
"The resilience and rapid rebuilding capacity of communities has been impressive," said Graham Saunders, head of the federation's shelter department in Geneva. "But hundreds of thousands of families still face the approaching winter with little more for shelter than reclaimed and often damaged building materials."
Bangladesh has sought two billion dollars in foreign aid to rebuild the cyclone-ravaged coast in the southwest. Overseas donors and aid agencies have pledged $470m in aid so far, the government said.
The US military ended an aid operation, dubbed Sea Angel II, earlier this month but said US civilian agencies including USAID would continue relief efforts.
Helicopters from the ships USS Tarawa and USS Kearsarge dropped food, water and medicine in the aftermath of the disaster.
The International Cricket Council said in a statement it had donated $250 000 toward the relief effort.
Malcolm Speed, chief executive of the world cricket governing body, presented a check to Bangladesh cricket captain Mohammad Ashraful before the start of a Twenty20 match on Sunday in Hamilton, New Zealand, where the team is on tour.
"The devastation caused in Bangladesh by Cyclone Sidr last month shocked us all," Speed said.
All proceeds from the match will also be donated to the fund, the release said.
Sidr was the worst weather-related disaster to hit Bangladesh since another powerful cyclone killed about 148 000 people there in 1991.
Crops destroyed by Sidr could have produced nearly one million tons of rice in this impoverished nation of 140 million people.
- AP
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