OCHA Situation Report No. 11
Bangladesh: Cyclone Sidr
1 December 2007


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

This situation report is based on information received from the 
Bangladesh Disaster Management Information Centre, the UN Resident 
Coordinator's Office Bangladesh, the Disaster Emergency Response Group 
(DER), UN Agencies and OCHA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific 
(ROAP).

I. Situation in Bangladesh

1. Cyclone Sidr, Category IV, hit Bangladesh on the evening of 15 
November. The cyclone struck offshore islands at 1830 hours and made 
landfall across the southern coast from Cox's Bazaar in the east toward 
the Satkhira districts in the west at 2030 hours local time, with wind 
speeds of up to 250 km/ph. Approximately 31 of Bangladesh's 64 districts 
were affected by the storm mainly within the administrative divisions of 
Barisal and Khulna. The storm caused extensive damage to the southern 
districts as it moved north across central Bangladesh.

2. As of 30 November, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) official 
reports indicated that more than 8.5 million people were affected by 
Cyclone Sidr, with a death toll of 3,268 people, with a further 872 
missing and 39,773 injured. Material damage is severe, with over 563,877 
houses destroyed and a further 885,280 houses were partially damaged. 
The GoB estimates more than 2 million acres of crops are damaged. Over 
1,252,344 livestock are confirmed killed, which represents loss of 
critical household assets, with an associated loss to wealth and income, 
as well as a loss in milk production for own consumption. Extensive 
damage to roads and public buildings was also reported, including 2,287 
educational institutions destroyed and another 12,343 partially damaged. 
The twelve most affected areas include Bagerhat, Barguna, Barisal, 
Bhola, Gopalgonj, Jhalkhati, Khulna, Mandaripur, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, 
Satkhira and Shariatpur districts.

3. Based on its assessments, the United Nations has identified food, 
shelter and cash as the three highest priority areas for immediate 
assistance, although sanitation, drinking water, electricity, livelihood 
assistance and early recovery are also urgently needed.

II. National Response in Bangladesh

4. Information regarding the emergency response, Cluster coordination, 
Cluster Leads, meeting schedules, updated information and relief 
response is available on the LCG Disaster Emergency Response - Cyclone 
Updates website: www.lcgbangladesh.org/derweb/cyclone_updates.php.

5. Food Cluster: Members are implementing food aid assistance and 
planning food security assessments. The Ministry of Food and Disaster 
Management (MoFDM) allocated 10,890 metric tonnes of rice and 27,000 
food packages, to date. With the Bangladesh Air Force, WFP, UNICEF and 
Save the Children continue to distribute food packages to people 
affected by the Cyclone Sidr. The Bangladesh Red Cross Society (BRCS) - 
IFRC, the Association of Medical Doctors of Asia (AMDA), BRAC, CARE, 
Christian Reformed World Relief Committee (CRWRC), Islamic Relief, 
Presbyterian World Service and Development (PWS&D) and World Vision 
International (WVI) are distributing emergency food relief packages and 
oral rehydration supplies.

FAO is planning livelihoods assessments in affected areas between 3-22 
December, concentrating on the impact to fisheries, forestry, 
agriculture and livestock. Save the Children and Oxfam are carrying out 
initial livelihoods assessments.

6. Water and Sanitation (WASH): The Department of Public Health 
Engineering (DPHE) is in the process of repairing public water sources. 
Many ponds require clearing and were damaged by saline inundation. The 
repair and provision of latrines, accompanied by strong hygiene 
promotion, remain a priority. The DPHE provided 3.5 million water 
purification tablets (WPTs), sufficient for 125,000 people for 2 weeks, 
with plans for a further distribution of 1.5 million tablets. A large 
number of water treatment plants are in place, with the potential to 
provide safe water for up to 960,000 people. The US military offered the 
use of specialized Reverse Osmosis (RO) water purification units. 
500,000 water containers are currently in the pipeline, including 
200,000 from the IFRC - BRCS, 100,000 from UNICEF and approximately 
200,000 from other WASH partners, including CARE, CRWRC, BRAC and Muslim 
Aid along with Global Medic. This quantity will meet initial 
requirements 2.5 million families. There are reports of limited water 
borne disease outbreaks. The WASH cluster is working in close 
consultation with the Ministry of Health at the national level and in 
key districts.

7. Health: Mapping of activities in the Health Cluster is identifying 
gaps in health activities in the affected areas to avoid duplication. 
WHO provided local authorities with medicines and sterilization 
supplies. Two emergency health kits containing medicines and supplies 
were provided to meet the basic needs of 20,000 people for three months. 
WHO is mobilizing supplies to ensure safe water in affected hospitals 
and peripheral health units. As of 28 November, six national public 
health experts will be dedicated to collecting information on diseases, 
assessing damage to health facilities and planning response operations 
in 9 affected districts. A total of 690 medical teams are working in the 
affected areas, these include teams from GoB, WHO, BRCS, IFRC, BRAC, 
CARE, Health Care services, Muslim Aid - Global Medic and the United 
States of America.

8. Emergency Shelter: The Emergency Shelter cluster is currently 
gathering organisation information on needs and planned coverage to 
provide a map indicating Who is doing What and Where. Linkages are being 
established with related clusters including WASH and Early Recovery. The 
GoB established a special fund of BDT 507 million taka for housing 
reconstruction grants for families affected by Cyclone Sidr. The MoFDM 
has distributed 16,454 tents and 13,000 bundles of corrugated iron 
sheets, in addition to contributions from WVI and CRWRC. ShelterBox 
Trust is distributing 624 shelter boxes as temporary shelter for those 
who lost their homes. Habitat for Humanity indicated its intention to 
assist up to 3,000 families through rebuilding and repairing homes, 
subject to funding.

9. Early Recovery: Initial results of assessments underway will be 
available next week (please refer to DER website). Comprehensive 
assessments will commence early December. A working group was 
established to develop a framework for early recovery that will support 
the GoB and community recovery efforts. The expansion of safety nets for 
relief and the early start-up of public work schemes to generate 
employment and much needed household income are key strategies for early 
recovery.

10. Logistics: The Bangladesh Armed Force Division continues to work 
non-stop on the distribution of relief goods to the local 
administrations, communities through the Bangladesh Air Forces and the 
US Aircrafts. A number of organizations have completed assessments and 
operational plans are currently in development. Most organizations will 
use local partners to deliver and distribute their relief items. Two of 
the members of the Logistics Response Team will assess the situation and 
hold a Logistics Cluster meeting in Barisal.  Transport prices have 
reportedly increased by as much as 25 per cent. Dhaka airport may face 
problems if organizations transport large quantities of cargo by plane. 
DFID intends to purchase a number of boats that would be available for 
use by the humanitarian community. WFP will make available any spare 
warehousing capacity to all humanitarian actors. The Logistics Cluster, 
through WFP, is considering making available 12 Mobile Storage Units 
from Indonesia. The Government requested information on relief 
distribution shared with the Relief Operations Coordination Centre in 
Barisal to avoid duplication and gaps.

III. International Response in Bangladesh

11. The Central Emergency Relief Fund (CERF) allocations to the Cyclone 
Sidr emergency response total USD 14.7 million.

12. IFRC launched an Emergency Appeal for USD 22.2 million to support 
the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BRCS) assist 1,215,000 
beneficiaries over a period of two years.

13. The total amount of received contributions and confirmed pledges for 
the Cyclone Sidr response in Bangladesh is USD 143,505,124, as recorded 
on the FTS at 1200 hrs on 1 December. Donors are encouraged to verify 
contributions and inform OCHA Financial Tracking System (FTS) of 
corrections/additions/values to this table. For updated information on 
financial contributions, please refer to the OCHA Financial Tracking 
System website: http://reliefweb.int/fts/.

14. This situation report, together with further information regarding 
on-going emergencies, is also available on the Reliefweb: 
http://www.reliefweb.int.

For detailed information please contact:

OCHA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok) Ms. Yindee 
Lertcharoenchok| Tel. + 66-89-890 6216 Email :Lertcharoenchok @un.org


Desk Officers:

(NYC) Ms. Kendra Clegg
Tel. +1 646 416 1140
Email: clegg@un.org

(GVA) Mr. Jean Verheyden
Tel: + 41 79 509 8116
Email: verheyden@un.org


Press contact

(NYC) Ms. Stephanie Bunker
Tel. + 1 917 367 5126

(GVA) Ms. Elizabeth Byrs
Tel. + 41 22 917 2653


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