(This article from our archives is a part of the web-exclusive series on our latest issue 'Disaster Politics'. It was first published in March 2011. More from the print quarterly here.)
With a coastline of more than 580 kilometres, Bangladesh is exposed to all sorts of water-induced disasters – floods, tropical cyclones (on average 16 times a decade), tornadoes and tidal 'bores', the latter a rare phenomenon in which a massive tide rapidly moves up a river course. While Bangladeshis have, over the decades, learned to live with all sorts of natural calamities, the 'experts' today remain hard at work experimenting with the best possible 'solutions' to such situations. The catch is that they do so without fully considering the actual needs of the people. While the country's cyclone shelters have received wide attention – and for good reason – now is the time to go beyond this approach.
A mature cyclone releases the energy equivalent to many Hiroshima-level bombs. Cyclones typically arise before and after the monsoon (in Bangladesh, April to May and October to November) over the Indian Ocean, and then travel up to the Bay of Bengal. Because Bangladesh is situated at the end of the funnel-shaped bay, with most of its deltaic plains less than 10 metres above sea level, it is highly vulnerable to cyclones. To make matters worse, about 10 million Bangladeshis live in areas almost the same height as the surrounding water – less than a metre above sea level. While cyclones hit Bangladesh with relative infrequency, the low-lying land and the country's weak infrastructure mean that they bring widespread devastation when they do occur. Even though just five percent of cyclones form in the Bay of Bengal, they result in more than three quarters of the world's loss of life and property.