Atiar Rahman's life was different before cyclone Aila.
He had 10 Bighas of land and a tin roofed house in Kalinagar village in Shyamnagar of Satkhira. His two sons and a daughter used to go to school too.
But the cyclone destroyed it all.
Aila washed away the embankment of the Kapotakkho river on that fateful day of May 25 in 2009. Along with it Atiar's house and the crops that he planted on his farmland also got washed away. He took shelter on a highway with many others whose stories are not any better.
Penniless and without livelihood, Atiar tried his luck in the trade of honey collection in the Sundarbans. But it did not work out for him. Having no skill in survival techniques in a forest, he lost an eye and suffered severe injuries in a tiger attack.
Although one side of his body paralysed and he mostly depends on his wife and children, Atiar now lives by pulling rickshaws. “But life could've been different if the embankment was maintained properly,” Atiar lamented.
“I heard the government is helping the poor and the distressed, but I never got that.”
Atiar was telling his story in the third National Climate Hearing yesterday in the capital's Institute of Engineers, Bangladesh.
Campaign for Sustainable Rural Livelihoods (CSRL) arranged the hearing with a focus on embankment maintenance.
Radha Rani from Kamarjong in Gaibandha described how the Brahmaputra suddenly devoured her entire village in 2016 while Aayna Bibi from Holdebunia of Uttar Betkashi under Koyra in Khulna narrated their sufferings following the Aila.
Three selected local public representatives from Gaibandha, Satkhira and Khulna also spoke at the programme.
The representatives explained how hard the locals work to protect the embankments. Raising allegations of negligence and corruption by Water Development Board officials, they said the government officials never repair the embankments when its needed the most and as a result, those remain vulnerable to any natural disaster most of the time.
After hearing the plights of the victims, a jury panel said maintenance of embankments is very crucial in a country like Bangladesh that is crisscrossed by rivers. Every year people face a huge loss of lives and property due to unmaintained embankments.
Climate change has an impact on rainfall pattern and an erratic pattern of rainfall causes sudden and recurring floods in Bangladesh. On the other hand, with the intensity and frequency of floods changing, failure in managing the levees is causing terrible sufferings to the people, the jury panel also said.
Saber Hossain Chowdhury, MP, one of the members of the jury panel, said the government has already identified 18 vulnerable groups that would be included in the development process. The vulnerable population from disaster-prone areas, especially from the southwest and northern regions, would get priority in the safety net programme.
Khondakar Ibrahim Khaled, former deputy governor of Bangladesh Bank; Dr Jahangir Alam Khan, VC of University of Global Village; and Dr Mahbuba Nasreen, director of Institute of Disaster Management; were also in the jury panel.
A panel of experts including Dr Ainun Nishat, professor Emeritus at Brac University; Dr A Atiq Rahman, executive director of Bangladesh Centre for Advanced Studies; Dr Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, member of independent technical advisory panel; and a councillor from Gaibandha, Dilruba Parvin Jharna, were present. Dr Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, president of CSRL and chairman of Palli Karma Sahayak Foundation; and Ziaul Haque Mukta, general secretary of CSRL; moderated the session.
