Banshkhali and Anwara Upazila in Bangladesh get aid three days after cyclone Roanu plunders them

Cyclone Roanu’s worst affected areas in Banshkhali and Anwara Upazila finally received relief material three days after the calamity wreaked havoc on them.

bdnews24.com spoke to people in Khankhanabad in Banshkhali and Gahira and Raipara Union in Anwara Upazila.

People in these areas have been the worst sufferers of the cyclone’s fury.

Banshkhali’s Khankhanabad Union seems to have taken the maximum brunt of the cyclone. As many as six of the total death toll of 24 in the country due to the cyclone was reported from this area.

Premashia village of Khankhanabad happens to be located on the absolute coast of the Bay.

Most villagers are either fishermen or daily wage earners.

Union Chairman Abu Siddique Abu told bdnews24.com that Ward number 3 of South Premashia, wards 7 and 8 of north Premashia, West Rayesta, Sheikh Mohammed Para and Fakir Para areas have witnessed the maximum destruction.

He said that many houses have been washed away by the cyclone. He informed that 2,000 of the 6,000 houses in the area have perished in the water.

Villagers speaking to bdnews24.com at Premashia market said that barring 3 RCC houses adjoining the embankment, all the other houses have been washed away without a trace.

They also informed that the embankment has been fragile for quite some time now and impromptu repairs using sacks of sand has done little to reinforce it.

A proper repair work of the embankment was due for quite some time now, they said.

Chairman Siddique conceded that 8 kilometres of the total 13 kms of the embankment was already broken.

Survivors at the relief camps complained that no relief material reached them before Monday. They said that they had received some dry food items like beaten rice, puffed rice and molasses following the Monday visit by Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya.

At a briefing on Sunday at Chittagong, the minister also blamed poor embankments for the destruction and damage in the coastal Upazilas.

The same picture greeted bdnews24.com in the affected areas of Anwara Upazila where relief material also reached on Monday.

Many people here too said that their houses had been washed away by the water surge during the cyclone.