Real Risk

The majority of household income is derived from the single

rice crop grown annually. This is commonly produced on a share-

cropping basis, and rent for the land accounts for a substantial

part of this income. Flash floods occur regularly at the end of the

dry season (most recently in 2004) and can lead to losses of the

rice crop and other vital assets including seeds and livestock. There

are few other crops grown in the area and alternate work is limited

to migrational labour and working as day labourers for the large

companies that control the fishing industry in the haor areas.

The paucity of basic services and absence of accountability of

public service providers further compounds the hardship in the

haor area. Government resource allocation for poverty alleviation

does not consider the special needs of this remote and geograph-

ically distinctive area. Despite its uniqueness, there is no specific

government policy to address the problems of the haor. The same

building designs, codes and allocations that apply to mainland

areas apply equally to haor areas.

Concern and the haor area

In recognition of these challenges, Concern has been working with

haor communities since 1988, initially implementing an emergency

response project and then moving in 1992 to the establishment of

long-term development programmes which included a number of

disaster preparedness and mitigation activities.

These activities included providing training to community groups

and local government officials in disaster contingency planning,

the principles of relief distribution and first aid. Other measures

included the construction of raised earth platforms as flood shel-

ters where people could take refuge with their domestic animals,

crops and other assets in the event of flooding. Flood and wave

protection measures such as brick walls and gabion structures were

constructed around village perimeters. Individual homesteads,

plinths, tube wells, sanitation units, and even entire villages were

raised above flooding levels, and saplings were planted along the

slopes of villages to reduce wave-induced soil erosion.

These interventions have helped protect and restore the liveli-

hoods and assets of the haor community and provided them with

an opportunity to engage in alternative income-generating activities

such as poultry rearing and kitchen gardening. Construction of the

physical protection measures provided local employment oppor-

tunities and an added benefit of the flood shelters is that, during

times of normal water levels, they can be used for drying crops and

as a space for social activities. Improved access to better water and

sanitation facilities has reduced the prevalence of water-borne

diseases during the rainy season.

Lessons learned and the way forward

In 2005 Concern, utilizing tools and methodologies developed

in its

Approaches to DRR

, undertook a further comprehensive risk

analysis to identify hazards which are more likely to occur, and

to understand the specific vulnerabilities of individual commu-

nities to their impact. Building on previous actions, specific

mitigation, preparedness and advocacy measures were identified.

Implementation of these through local non-governmental orga-

nizations (NGOs) and disaster management committees will

increase the ability of communities to withstand, respond to, and

recover from the impact of hazards.

Care was taken to ensure that these measures complemented the

recently established national framework on disaster management

and recognized that local government institutions in Bangladesh

have the mandate to coordinate and implement risk reduction

activities. It is clear that Concern has a role in making linkages

between macro-level policy and micro-level activities, particularly

in articulating the vulnerabilities of poor communities.

Mitigation measures

The risk assessment in 2005 revealed that while some of the miti-

gation measures introduced performed well, a number of them

required reassessment in order to better reduce the vulnerability

of communities:

Flood protection measures

– Haor villages have various physi-

cal flood protection measures in place which were constructed

by the communities themselves, Concern, other NGOs, and

government agencies. These include brick protection walls,

concrete blocks, gabion structures and plantations. They have

not all proved to be equally effective or durable, and a cost-to-

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Though often futile, rural households protect their homestead lands by erecting reed sheeting tied with bamboo and fortified with challa grass

Photo: Pankaj Kumar