Tragedy in Bangla Desh: Who's to blame for death toll?

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A woman mourns for relatives lost in the cyclone. 16 SOCIALIST ACTION JUNE 1991 The major cyclone that devastated Bangladesh on April 29, followed by massive flooding and an earthquake, has brought some 125,000 deaths. The death toll is expected to climb as flood waters recede. Entire villages were wiped out by waves 20 feet high driven by 145 mph winds.

Government officials estimate that more than 30,000 of the 264,000 farmers and fishermen who lived on the Bay of Bengal coastal area perished. Deaths from cholera and other diseases are also anticipated.

The recently elected Prime Minister Khaleda Zia estimates. damage at $1.42 billion.

Relief efforts have been slow. The U.S. government initially only gave $7 million for cyclone relief and 67,000 tons of food. Later, Washington sent 8000 troops (on their way home from the Persian Gulf) to aid the effort. The eight-ship task force includes 30 helicopters and 4 Hovercraft. They will be used to transport food and supplies, not to build embankments and shelters.

Overall, the international aid has been shameful. Bangladesh is one of the poorest countries in the world. Some 120 million people live on 55,000 square miles. The per capita income is $180. For much of the year Bangladesh is under water. Yet the country had only 302 cyclone shelters, while 5000 to 10,000 are needed. A single shelter costs $50,000—a drop in the bucket for the rich industrialized countries.

Not surprisingly, many people in the United States and other industrialized countries are numb to the disaster. First the Kurds, the African famine, and now Bangladesh! working poosympathy especially among ›. But many belleve 1nirc World disasters reflect the situation of the people themselves. "Maybe it is their fault. There are floods and cyclones all the time, why didn't the people there prepare?" is not an uncommon comment.

The most cynical say that Bangladesh is growing by 2.4 million people each year; it will take only two to three weeks to make up for the loss of 125,000 or more people.

Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times wrote, for example, "It is not so much weather that is killing people as it is poverty." He notes that "about 870,000 Bangladeshi children under the age of five die routinely, a third of them from nothing more than diarrhea caused by impure water."

Behind underdevelopment

It is true that Bangladesh is a very poor country. It is also true that millions die each year because of annual flood waters and disease. But is it inevitable?

No. Bangladesh is similar in land size to Europe's Holland. Holland, 1o0, would face massive flooding if it were uncontrolled. Yet Holland is never in the newspaper each year suffering from overflowing rivers and massive disasters caused by nature. Why?

Holland is an advanced industrial country that has been able to minimize the impact of nature to prevent major disasters. They have built dikes to prevent flooding. The last major storm to cause significant flooding deaths occurred in 1953, when 1850 died in southern Holland.The first dikes were built 700 years earlier.

Bangladesh won its independence in 1971 after a national liberation war. But from 1947 to 1971, for 24 years, Bangladesh was known as East Pakistan and treated as a semicolonial outpost for West Pakistan, 1100 miles away. Prior to 1947 the region was known as East Bengal, as part of British India.

The British imperialists, unlike the Dutch, did not build dikes to control the great rivers—the Ganges, the Brahmaputra, and the Meghna. So year after year in "normal" rainfalls, the rivers overflowed and killed the mostly agricultural people-landholders and those without land. Since 1857, Bangladesh has been hit by some 50 major cyclones, and far more lesser ones. The latest one even gave notice four days before it struck.

But there was little the people could do because they have no dikes, no shelters or places to live. "Where would I go?" asked Aminsharif, a 27-year-old Gomatali Island resident in the Bay of Bengal who lost his entire family to the cyclone. "I have land here, and it's all I have. I have no choice but to stay."

Since over 50 percent of Bangladesh becomes inundated by annual rains-made worse by cyclones—the real issue is how to limit the damage, since most of the country, with the possible exception of Dhaka, the capital, is harshly impacted.

The British magazine, The Economist, makes a telling point in its May 11 issue:

"Floods and earthquakes are pure disasters. It seems that only nature is to blame. Yet competent governments, given foresight and funds, can build defenses against them. In June 1990 an earthquake struck the sparse villages of northern Iran, killing more than 40,000 people. The previous year an equally fierce tremor, striking the packed city of San Francisco, killed fewer than 100 people. Public investment and public compulsion saved the Californians. Tax payers paid for their reinforced highways, regulators ordered that their high-rise buildings might twist but Udo Weitz/Al would not collapse. Rich and powerful states can defend their people, in peace as in war."

Bangladeshis, however, have suffered from super-exploitation. Their rich farm land was used to service the British rulers for decades. Then, after Pakistan was formed in 1947, large plantations and jute mills were built to service the Pakistani rulers. Funds were not available for local development.

No shelters Proof that the "natural disaster" on April 29 could have been less devastating if flood development had been done is seen in one small example provided by a reporter for The Economist:

"On some islands the people survived. The 650 people on the island of Sonadia climbed on to a 12 feet high cyclone shelter, the island's only solid building, and all were saved. When a cyclone struck the island in 1970, all its people were drowned."

Many Bengali fishermen and farmers live on these small islands in the Bay of Bengal. But they are not really islands. They are banks of silt composed of deposits brought down the rivers. As soon as they are formed, they are taken over by farmers who grow rice on the rich soil. Because land is scarce in Bangladesh, the farmers stay despite the cyclones. Yet if brick shelters had been built, most would be still alive today.

How much would it cost to build the additional shelters? Some $66 million. That's less than one new Boeing 747 aircraft.

The crime of imperialism is that it refuses to help countries like Bangladesh to build the dams necessary to prevent "natural disasters. " In 1989, the World Bank held a conference in London to discuss an "action plan" to protect Bangladesh from flooding. It included proposals to build vast embankments along the coast and the river banks. Old embankments are 12 to 15 feet high; they should be 18 to 25 feet to provide protection from major cyclones. Drains would be dug to divert flood water to areas where it could do no harm.

Yet the "countries expected to foot the bill jibbed at the astronomical sums being talked about, " reports The Economist. "Promises to start work on the plan in 1990 were clearly unrealistic. It is still in what is described as the 'assessment' stage." So much for Bangladeshi lives.

Government corruption

Imperialism is not totally to blame for the current devastation. Corrupt and inefficient capitalist governments have played their part to0. After independence in 1947, the new Pakistani government refused to give East Pakistan (Bangladesh) fair economic treatment. It developed the jute industry for export earnings with little being reinvested into East Pakistan, the most populated region of the country.

This exploitive relationship between West and East Pakistan fueled the independence movement. Pakistan also refused to develop flood controls. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of the independence movement and first prime minister of Bangladesh, made the issue of lack of flood control one of the reasons for nationhood. Water, if properly controlled, would free Bangladesh from its severe underdevelopment.

After independence in 1971, however, the new Rahman government took steps to rebuild the Bangladeshi capitalist merchant and landholding classes at the expense of the landless peasants and poor working class. He used the government civil service to build up a base of power. Corruption and inefficiency became the norm. No steps were taken to prepare the people for the annual floods or the cyclones. Relief aid was pocketed.

Rahman's corruption led to a growing leftwing movement and divisions in the military. Finally, a military coup was organized in August 1975, and Rahman was assassinated. From that year until December 1990, the military directly ran the country. The military rulers spent very little of its foreign aid on development or shelter protection.

In the four years from 1986-89, some $5.9 billion was granted or loaned to the government. Shelters weren't built; and few stocks of emergency food and medical supplies were bought.

A mass popular movement emerged in the late 1980s, and forced the army out of direct power. Elections were held this past February. The new regime blames the past government for the current problems in relief efforts. Yet the new prime minister's husband was a former military ruler killed in a coup in 1981.

Poverty is a big problem for Bangladesh. Cancellation of the foreign debt would help. Massive economic aid from Washington, London, and other imperialist countries is also needed. The World Bank plan, as a start, must be implemented and paid for by the rich countries.

The merchants and others now becoming rich off the people's suffering must be put out of business. Reports indicate that wellstocked merchants are profiting from rice (a basic staple) and building materials. In some cases, they are charging 10 times the normal price.

Pressure is mounting on the new regime to meet the needs of the people. If reports of corruption are not met firmly, the government can expect to face not only homeless and starving people, but rebellion.