Administration, DAE must now stand beside the Sitrang victims

Bangladesh knows that it will have to live with natural vagaries such as cyclones, floods, droughts and it was also prepared for the cyclone Sitrang that ravaged the coastal districts of the country on Monday night. Despite the preparation, Sitrang wreaked havoc both in terms of loss of people’s lives, properties as well as the standing crops. When the country is reeling under a great economic crisis, the devastation caused by the cyclone was unfortunate indeed. But the nation must overcome the damages by taking up the right steps without any negligence.
According to initial reports, Sitrang claimed at least 21 lives in different districts and damaged 10,000 homes and 6,000 hectares of croplands. Due to rains and tidal waves, about 1,000 fishing enclosures washed away in 419 unions in the coastal regions. Moreover, Sitrang’s powerful winds damaged the infrastructure of electricity that turned eight millions of consumers without any electricity. Besides the number of deaths, eight persons were also found to be missing. It is feared that they became victims of the cyclone. This is sad indeed.
Lives that are lost cannot be brought back, but it is absolutely necessary to stand by the victims who have incurred huge losses both in terms of lives and properties. The local administration in every coastal upazilas and districts must now find out the extent of damage and do the needful. Electricity connection and road communication must be restored immediately. If necessary, the heavily affected poor people must be extended financial support. The presence of the administration beside the victims in this period of crisis will give them the much-needed inspiration to come out of the crisis.  
Importantly, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) people in each affected upzilas need to go to the affected farmers and see by themselves the state of damage of their crops and fish enclosures. Besides providing the agricultural input as necessary, scientific and educated advice can render great help to the farmers.
People of the coastal regions in Bangladesh are very resilient to natural disasters. They are brave. In the past, they did not take much time to recoup their losses and come back to normal life after super cyclones such as Sidr (2007) and Aila (2009) lashed the southern districts of the country. Experts say that the country might be hit by another cyclone in December. The nation should be better prepared for any such future disaster learning from the past mistakes.