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FROM THE FIELD

A Story of Nothing Left

07 Dec 2007 06:28:00 GMT
Source: Catholic Relief Services (CRS) - USA
Caroline Brennan

Website: Website: http://www.crs.org

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(from left): Sitting at what was the port of their boat is the oldest son, Forib; next to him Malick, 10, Sorab, 14, their father Khalam, and his wife Fatma, holding their youngest son Khalzar, 4.
Photo by Debasish Shom for CRS

Background

• Cyclone Sidr

• Floods

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by Caroline Brennan

When Bengali fisherman Khalam Mazi ("boat man") saw the remains of his boat along the sand the morning after Cyclone Sidr, only one thought crossed his mind: he wished he were dead.

He tells me this with his boat at his feet -- now a pile of firewood on which his oldest son sits like he would if he was out at sea. But sand is all around them and they haven't been on water since it came mercilessly to them. The story right now for Khalam and this fishing community on the Bay of Bengal is the story of nothing left.

These coastal and predominantly fishing communities were the hardest hit by the cyclone due to the tidal surge that violently rushed a mile inland, tearing apart what people had built for generations. What that means for Khalam is that, when he looks out at the empty coast line, he sees nothing he can call his own -- no source of food to feed his family that night, no way to earn a living the next day, no sense of calm for his anxiety to keep his family afloat.

"To die would have been better for me," he says.

Like many fishermen, Khalam, 45, never went to school; his four sons, the oldest at 19, have never sat in a classroom. "If I send my children to school, how will I pay for someone to work on my boat?" he asks. Instead, they are masters of the water, their lives centered entirely on currents and the fishing potential in a bay that is just a minute's walk from where they sleep.

Fishing is a dignified way of life and Khalam and his family earned enough to get by on their average income of $2 a day.

"Before the cyclone, we had no problem. I caught fish, sold it, [and] my living was going on in such a way. Until we go for fishing, I don't know how to live or survive," he says.

Without a boat, and with only sand where his house once stood, Khalam feels like he's sinking. A new boat, even modest in size at 30 feet long by 4 feet wide, will cost as much as $520. Fishing nets are the real blow, given the expensive imported materials. One net alone costs as much as $1,000. Already owing $75 for his previous boat and without any savings, Khalam's debt is likely to skyrocket.

"I have four children - sons - and a wife. I am considering a loan, but it will be on the high interest. The loan sharks ask for payment in fish and pay at the bottom rate," he says.

What Khalam was able to salvage was some debris to make up a shelter. Standing behind him is a tin box -- their home -- its walls and roof of corrugated tin sheets, with donated used clothing filling in the empty spaces. The tin brings out the worst of the weather surrounding it and, for Khalam's family tucked away under the one-room cover, it is cold at night and sizzling in the day.

Khalam's family is fortunate to have survived. A reported 3,400 people, mostly along coastal villages, died in the cyclone. Like hundreds of thousands of people across the country, Khalam's family took shelter in a designated safe spot in the community. For two days leading up to the disaster, government officials and aid workers, including CRS partner Caritas Bangladesh, announced updates and warnings for people to know when and where to take cover. In Khalam's community, that was a local hotel just high enough to dodge the water's siege.

Khalam stayed behind in their house that evening to watch over the boat. He knew how much was at stake and felt he must know what would happen. Two hours after its start the storm came crashing in, ripping apart the walls around him.

"I knew I had to leave, but I saw some corrugated tin sheets flying around and thought I might be seriously injured. So, I crawled along the ground dodging the flying material until I reached the hotel," said Khalam.

All of Khalam's family members were there, and about 500 more people from the area who had crowded in the lobby. Men were on the ground floor and women on the upper floors.

"During this time, we prayed to Allah," says Khalam.

The cover that was available saved only people -- not what they owned and needed to survive. When morning came and the waters receded, Khalam and the others emerged to find what remained.

"We found not much debris, not anything, not even my house," said Khalam.

Over the next three days, Khalam and his sons built what is now their shelter. Nevertheless, for him and his family, home is on the water. Until he can get back there, to all that he knows, Khalam struggles to answer his family's question of what to do from here.

"Without a boat, how will we live? This is our only profession," he says. "With our boat broken, our life is broken."

Rebuilding After the Cyclone

Across the country, people are facing different challenges and levels of loss. In coastal areas, much of the land has been converted into ponds for prawn farming, an exploitative industry in which impoverished people are persuaded to borrow money to convert their field into a pond and repay the debt with their prawn harvest. The destruction of ponds by water contamination has left some farmers in crisis. In some areas, winter crops of vegetables and rice (to be harvested just a couple of weeks after the cyclone hit) are gone. Fields hit with the storm's waters are left covered in salt and infertile. For day laborers who worked in the fields, fishing, collecting sand or husking rice, employers no longer have work or the means to pay them. Many people have one, if not multiple, debts.

Caritas has planned to create employment opportunities for an estimated 9,000 people by rebuilding damaged infrastructure at the community level and establishing means to resume their trade. To date, CRS/Caritas has reached 51,000 families with food and emergency relief.

Caroline Brennan is South Asia regional information officer for Catholic Relief Services. She is based in New Delhi, India.

[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Last updated:Fri Dec 7 09:22:16 2007