DHAKA, Dec 14 (Reuters) - The United States will build cyclone shelters and bridges worth $4.3 million in Bangladesh's coastal areas devastated by a super cyclone last year, the U.S. embassy said in a statement on Sunday. Twenty four multipurpose cyclone shelters and four bridges will be built with the money, provided by the U.S. Pacific Command, in Khulna and Barisal coastal regions. Cyclone Sidr battered Bangladesh coasts in November last year killing nearly 3,500 people and displacing around two million. It also left infrastructure damage worth more than $1 billion. "Each shelter can safely protect 1,500 people," the statement said. The shelters and the bridges would be built over the next year, an embassy official said. Bangladesh has over 1,000 multipurpose cyclone shelters to protect some one million people but needs many more to protect about 15 million people living at the coastal belts, an official from the disaster management ministry said. Immediately after Cyclone Sidr, the U.S provided $36.5 million for emergency food assistance and non-food emergency relief activities. The assistance will be in addition to $100 million being provided by the U.S. in 2008 for cyclone assistance. The U.S. has provided more than $5 billion in development assistance to Bangladesh since independence in 1971. (Reporting by Nizam Ahmed; Editing by Sami Aboudi)
RNPS IMAGES OF THE YEAR 2008 A child drinks water at a flood relief camp in Araria district town in the eastern Indian state of Bihar, September 7, 2008. Authorities battling ...
