Bangladesh: Living on the Edge in a Flood

The recent flood waters in Bangladesh, that submerged more than half the country, are now receding from homes and roads. However, water still stands on fields, and the humanitarian situation remains serious for the one million-plus people who have been affected. For the poorest of the poor, the need for shelter, fresh drinking water, and food, exceeds available resources.

CARE is helping with rescue operations, food distribution, emergency shelter, water treatment and disease prevention efforts. Once the immediate emergency needs are met, CARE’s efforts will turn to longer-term support that includes providing seeds to thousands of flood-affected families for early agriculture recovery, and supporting children returning to school. Funds given to CARE to support our flood relief efforts benefit Bangladesh and three other affected countries, or a donation to CARE’s Emergency Response Fund helps with relief efforts in emergency situations when and where the need is greatest.

The following is a story of one woman struggling to survive—and CARE’s response—following major flooding in Bangladesh in July and August of 2007.

Sona Bhan Bibi, forty years old, spends her days in a temporary shelter on a raised piece of road on the outskirts of Baghutia village, in Bangladesh’s Chowhali Upazila, in the Sirajganj district. At the time of the flood, water in the middle of the village was up to a grown man’s chest. Since then it has subsided slightly, but hundreds of people from villages that disappeared in the flood are still living on the roadway, which was designed partly to be a flood barrier. Some flood affected families are beginning to return to their villages, but Sona Bhan Bibi has decided to stay where she is for the time being. Her caution makes sense. While water receded in some of the flooded areas of Bangladesh, it is actually increasing in other areas, and the nearby Jumana River has been steadily rising above danger levels.

When the floods first hit Bangladesh at the beginning of August 2007, Sona Bhan Bibi was not particularly worried. Her house was relatively far from the riverbank, and it was on a raised piece of land. It turned out that nearly everyone had underestimated the force of the floods, or how deeply the water would cut into what had previously seemed like solid land. Sona Bhan Bibi was wakened at four a.m. by a rushing sound and shouting. The ground beneath her bed suddenly became wet, and when she opened the door, water came rushing in.