VZCZCXRO0648
PP RUEHCI
DE RUEHKA #0219/01 0491108
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P 181108Z FEB 08
FM AMEMBASSY DHAKA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6239
INFO RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU PRIORITY 9542
RUEHRO/AMEMBASSY ROME PRIORITY 0459
RUEHBK/AMEMBASSY BANGKOK PRIORITY 8406
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA PRIORITY 1164
RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA PRIORITY 0654
RUCNDT/USMISSION USUN NEW YORK PRIORITY 0095
RUEKDIA/JOINT STAFF WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY
RHHMUNA/USCINCPAC HONOLULU HI PRIORITY
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC PRIORITY
RUEKDIA/DIA WASHINGTON DC PRIORITY

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 DHAKA 000219 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
DCHA/OFDA FOR ROBERT THAYER 
AID/W FOR AA MARK WARD AND ANE ANNE DIX 
DEPT PASS TO SCA/EX 
DEPT PASS TO SCA/PB 
DCHA/FPP FOR MATTHEW NIMS AND PAUL NOVICK 
ROME FOR FODAG 
BANGKOK FOR RDM/A TOM DOLAN, ROB BARTON 
KATHMANDU FOR USAID OFDA BILL BERGER AND SUE MCINTYRE 
 
E.O.12958: N/A 
TAGS: EAID SOCI PINR PREL BG
SUBJECT: Interagency Assessment West Team Report - Cyclone Sidr 
 
¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY:  Over the last three weeks, two U.S. Interagency 
Assessment Teams (IATs) surveyed five sub-districts (upazilas) in 
southern Bangladesh, which were severely hit by Cyclone Sidr.  This 
report is from the team that surveyed the Morrelganj and Sarankhola 
sub-districts.  Through meetings with local government officials, 
NGOs, civil society leaders, villagers, and city dwellers, the team 
gathered a thorough assessment of the situation.  Almost 
universally, people praised the relief efforts of the Caretaker 
Government, the Bangladesh military, NGOs and the United States 
military.  Equally universally, people questioned when 
reconstruction efforts would begin.  In this already poor region of 
Bangladesh, people now live under polyurethane sheets, secondary 
school children study in the open air, and worshipers pray in 
devastated mosques and temples. Local leaders worry about a food 
crisis due to Sidr's catastrophic impact on agriculture (70-90% of 
the rice crop was lost) and aquaculture (most shrimp farms were 
wiped out).  END SUMMARY. 
 
Interagency Assessment Team Approach 
 
¶2. (SBU) The two assessment teams consisted of U.S. Embassy Dhaka 
Foreign Service Officers (both State and USAID) DoD Civil Affairs 
officers, DoD technical experts, and U.S. Embassy Dhaka Locally 
Engaged Staff (LES).  For 20 days, these teams traveled throughout 
their assigned sub-districts and documented the impact of Cyclone 
Sidr on communities and assessed relief and reconstruction 
activities.  The teams gathered exact GPS coordinates of important 
civic locations (e.g., educational and religious institutions, 
medical facilities, and local government offices), which will assist 
in future USG efforts in these regions.  The teams also gathered 
information about local government leaders and other organizations 
involved in the rebuilding and recovery after the cyclone.  Finally, 
using DoD funds, the teams completed a number of small humanitarian 
assistance projects in affected communities. (NOTE: Cables 
summarizing the IAT East team's experiences and summarizing the 
overall effort will be delivered SEPTEL.  END NOTE.) 
 
IAT West Findings - Relief Efforts To Date 
 
¶3. (SBU) The people met by the team almost universally indicated 
they were satisfied with relief efforts immediately following 
Cyclone Sidr, which made landfall on November 15.  People felt that 
the Caretaker Government, Bangladesh military, NGOs, and the U.S. 
military played positive roles in providing critical, life-saving 
relief.  In addition, the fact that there were no widespread health 
epidemics reflects both the speed and the quality of the relief and 
the education provided to the population before the cyclone on good 
sanitary practices and habits. 
 
¶4. (SBU) With respect to the cyclone's devastating impact on 
agriculture and aquaculture, the team witnessed NGOs and other 
organizations providing food supplies, and local markets were well 
stocked.  Many people complained to our team members of the high 
price of basic commodities.  Several local leaders warned that 
existing food supplies are dwindling due to crop loss, and they said 
they thought a food crisis could occur in the next month or two as 
the existing supplies are consumed.  Many areas of the assessed 
sub-districts only produce one rice crop per year, which is not 
harvested until the end of October or November.  As a result, 
locally-produced rice will not be available to cyclone victims for 
at least eight months. 
 
¶5. (SBU) The cyclone had a dramatic effect on potable water in the 
region.  Significant work has been done by NGOs to treat ponds that 
were contaminated by salt water and other debris.  However, the team 
also saw numerous broken tube wells and pond sand filters.  There 
were also many locations where people did not have access to potable 
water within a 1-2 kilometer radius.  It appears that access to 
potable water was an issue prior to Cyclone Sidr, and this access 
has been exacerbated further by the cyclone. 
 
¶6. (SBU) The Government of Bangladesh (GOB) is attempting to address 
 
DHAKA 00000219  002 OF 004 
 
 
the housing crisis by providing the following relief to people: 
5,000 taka ($73.50) for fully damaged homes and 1,000 taka ($14.70) 
for partially damaged homes.  The local governments (Union Councils) 
provide a list of impacted people to the GOB, and then the 
Bangladesh military confirms the information through door-to-door 
surveys.  Upon completion of these surveys, payments are provided to 
the people.  Our team observed the military distributing some of 
these payments.  These payments, however, do not cover the costs of 
rebuilding a home, much less a livelihood.  One team saw a family 
that chose to use the 5,000 taka to rebuild one of its two lost 
chicken coops instead of rebuilding its home; in the meantime, the 
family continues to live in a tent on its property.  One thousand 
taka will not even buy a family a bundle of tin to rebuild a roof. 
A bundle of tin typically costs between 2,500 and 4,000 taka. 
 
¶7. (SBU) Cyclone Sidr also inflicted great damage to many of the 
regions secondary schools and colleges.  The primary schools 
incurred less damage because they tended to be concrete structures 
with concrete roofs.  Secondary schools and madrassas, however, were 
terribly damaged by the powerful winds, falling trees, or 8 foot 
high waves that overflowed embankments and flooded the countryside. 
The GOB is providing the following relief to secondary schools and 
madrassas: if a school is fully damaged, it receives 250,000 taka 
($3,623); if it is partially damaged, the school receives 50,000 
taka ($735).  The determination of the damage to the school appears 
to be in the hands of the government of the sub-district, and very 
few schools received the larger sum.  Interestingly, one school 
received the full amount when the school had only been partially 
damaged, which raised questions about possible corruption.  The team 
also heard about a "tax" on these payments which reduced the final 
distribution and also raised corruption concerns.  Regardless, the 
amounts provided to the schools are rarely sufficient for these 
schools to rebuild. On one of our humanitarian assistance projects, 
we provided 55,000 taka and that only paid for the tin for the roof 
on one of the school's two demolished buildings; the school provided 
free labor to install the new roofing materials.  Most school 
administrators reported estimated rebuilding costs in the hundreds 
of thousands of taka. 
 
¶8. (SBU) To address the religious needs of the people, there have 
been no significant relief efforts to date.  Mosques and other 
places of worship have placed signs throughout the area requesting 
funds to rebuild.  The leaders of these institutions are appealing 
to members of the community to assist.  In some cases, these leaders 
have been successful, but in many cases, all that remains of the 
places of worship are the clay foundations on which the buildings 
rested when the storm hit. 
 
IAT West Findings - Current Reconstruction Efforts 
 
¶9. (SBU) While people universally appear satisfied with the relief 
they received after this catastrophic storm, they also expressed 
disappointment that large-scale reconstruction has not started.  A 
prevailing opinion among local elected officials and civil servants 
in the area is that relief efforts need to stop and reconstruction 
needs to occur.  Repeatedly the team heard from community and 
government leaders that people are becoming dependent on handouts 
and no longer looking for work to survive.  Leaders consistently 
praised programs like cash-for-work and food-for-work which reward 
work and also re-build much-needed infrastructure, such as houses, 
roads and embankments.  The reconstruction needs are vast. 
 
¶10. (SBU) While the GOB provided funds to people to rebuild their 
homes, the government's representatives acknowledged that these 
funds would not cover the entire rebuilding costs.  As a result, 
thousands of Bangladeshis now sleep under crude roofs and/or 
polyurethane sheets.  In contrast, our team members slept in 
multiple layers of clothing and under two blankets just to stay warm 
during the winter evenings.  This precarious housing situation was 
exacerbated by two days of cold rain that unexpectedly hit the 
region and served as a reminder that monsoon season is only three 
months away.  While local leaders were aware of some commitments to 
rebuild homes, our team did not see any evidence of large-scale 
 
DHAKA 00000219  003 OF 004 
 
 
construction.  The team heard of a Bangladeshi government initiative 
to try to enforce more stringent housing requirements for any new 
houses.  While these requirements should ensure more solid 
structures, they may also result in fewer houses due to increased 
costs and longer construction timeframes.  In addition, local 
leaders do not know when the government will give final approval to 
the designs of these homes. 
 
¶11. (SBU) The reconstruction of infrastructure appears to be very 
slow.  The only projects witnessed by the team were limited 
food-for-work and cash-for-work initiatives that focused on 
rebuilding roads.  Nevertheless, there remain numerous roads where 
team members had to scramble up, down, and around on foot to 
continue their surveys.  During the upcoming monsoon season, many of 
these roads will be impassable to motor vehicle traffic.  In 
addition, in one of the world's largest river deltas, many small but 
important bridges were wiped out by the storm, thereby impacting the 
local population's ability to travel.  There are also important 
sluice gates that have been badly damaged.  In some cases, these 
sluice gates were built to prevent salt water from entering 
agricultural land and destroying the crops. 
 
¶12. (SBU) The reconstruction of the local economy also appears to be 
very slow.  Many people lost their entire livelihoods (whether these 
were chicken coops, fishing boats, or rice crops), so they do not 
have any real collateral and/or income with which to start to 
rebuild.  People called for access to cheap credit so that the small 
businesses could rebuild.  In the past, villagers could turn to 
others in the community for loans.  Now, however, since practically 
everyone was impoverished by the cyclone, everyone is scrambling to 
rebuild and this important source of capital is no longer available. 
 The loan amounts requested for these small business people ranged 
from 100,000 taka to 300,000 taka, which is higher than what is 
typically offered by the micro-credit organizations.  In one area, 
the local union chairman told team members that his community is 
ready to restart shrimp farming, an activity that brings in revenue 
of 500,000 taka for a 200,000 taka investment in only three months. 
(NOTE: Aquaculture is Bangladesh's second largest export by value. 
In the last fiscal year, the country exported approximately USD 500 
million in aquaculture products.  END NOTE.)  Unfortunately for this 
community there is no organization or group willing to provide the 
start-up funds.  (NOTE: Within 30 days, USAID will use reprogrammed 
resources to initiate an aquaculture and shrimp program to help 
rebuild livelihoods throughout the Sidr-affected areas.  These 
reprogrammed resources will only meet a fraction of the need.  END 
NOTE.) 
 
IAT West Team Recommendations 
 
¶13. (SBU) The reconstruction needs for these regions are significant 
and require quick to immediate attention.  Within the next 60 days, 
food, cash-for-work programs and infrastructure repair are needed. 
If food supplies are rapidly diminishing in the area, then 
preparations to deliver food to the region should begin soon.  In 
addition, cash-for-work infrastructure projects would give a boost 
to the local economy, help rebuild the region, and provide income 
for people to both purchase food and restart their lives.  From an 
infrastructure perspective, particular care should be given to the 
sluice gates and/or embankments that prevent the contamination of 
crop fields; another lost crop would further debilitate a recovering 
economy and people.  In addition, the region's need for potable 
water is real, and any projects designed to build ponds or sink tube 
wells would bring work and water to the region. 
 
¶14. (SBU) In the next 60-180 days, the region needs to see a large 
scale effort to rebuild homes and community structures.  Monsoon 
season arrives in May, and many people continue to live in makeshift 
accommodations.  In addition, outside of the primary schools, many 
of the educational institutions are in shambles.  In many of the 
secondary schools and madrassas the students study in the open air, 
which won't be possible during the monsoon season.  Places of 
worship also have received little to no support from the government, 
and they appear to rely solely on private funding to rebuild, 
 
DHAKA 00000219  004 OF 004 
 
 
whether from the community or from other NGOs.  Finally, more 
infrastructure projects should continue until the monsoon season to 
rebuild the roads, bridges, and levies that allow people and 
commerce to move freely. 
 
¶15. (SBU) In the long term, large-scale infrastructure projects 
could truly revitalize the region, provide the foundation for real 
growth, and prevent future disasters like Cyclone Sidr from 
happening again.  For example, an increase of five feet in the 
embankment in the South Khali sub-district in Sarankhola would have 
held back the devastating wave that washed away buildings and 
drowned precious livestock.  Areas in these regions did not have 
electricity before Cyclone Sidr; efforts focused on bringing 
electricity to those people would improve lives and allow for more 
economic activity in the region.  Several areas that we visited are 
unreachable by car, and our team had to travel by foot, motorcycle, 
and/or trawler to reach them.  Large-scale road projects would allow 
the people in these communities to travel further to deliver 
products and find work.  In addition, the continued building of 
multi-purpose cyclone shelters in these areas would serve two 
important needs: 1) an increase in solid concrete community 
structures that can serve as schools, religious institutions, or 
government buildings, and 2) a location to where people can flee 
if/when a similar catastrophic storm comes to this area of 
Bangladesh again.  Finally, the people in the region are resilient, 
improving their access to cheap capital would allow them to rebuild 
their businesses or start new businesses. 
 
Comment 
 
¶16. (SBU) Over the last 20 days, the U.S. Government has done an 
intensive survey of these heavily impacted regions.  The IAT West 
team witnessed first-hand a region that received adequate relief, 
but is only now starting to rebuild and without a great deal of 
visible outside assistance (in particular in the Morrelganj 
upazila).  There are immediate, short-term, and long-term needs in 
the region that should be addressed.  A large-scale commitment by 
the U.S. Government would bring much needed assistance to this 
region. 
 
Pasi