By The Numbers
Need for national austerity
The super-cyclone Sidr that hit the country on the night of November 15 has caused colossal damage and destruction in the south and southwestern districts of the country. The country's sluggish economy was severely struck by another devastating calamity when it was just recovering from the fallout of the consecutive floods.
According to a preliminary assessment made by the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management, Cyclone Sidr has affected nearly 69 lakh people of 16 lakh families. Crops on about 4.62 lakh acres in 30 districts were damaged completely just before harvesting, and over 4.68 lakh cattle perished.
The number of ravaged homesteads is over 12.08 lakh, and Sidr spared not a single house across the coastal belt. A total of 9,248 educational institutions were damaged, of which 1,355 were razed to the ground. Rural infrastructures were also badly damaged, with destruction of 1,654 bridges and culverts and 848 kilometers of road.
The country's shrimp farms and frozen food industry, the second largest foreign currency earner, were severely ravaged by Sidr, and suffered a loss of Tk 250 crore. The cyclone destroyed 800 cattle farms and 2,000 poultry farms, causing a loss of Tk 300 crore. Apart from the losses caused by the cyclone, shrimp exporters are facing another Tk 150 crore loss due to drastic fall in prices and demand in the international markets. Shrimp farmers and the cattle and poultry farms owners need help to recover from the loss caused by Sidr.
Colossal damage was also caused to the world's largest mangrove forest, the Sundarban, as the cyclone first hit the forest. Over a million people living in and around the Sundarban depend on this forest for their livelihood. They badly need financial assistance to start their life afresh.
More than 10.6 million people live in the coastal belt of the country. But there are 2,168 cyclone shelters that can provide shelter to only 1.5 million people. Only 3,976 cyclone shelters were built till the mid-nineties. Out of these 1,576 were damaged by river erosion or were abandoned due to their dilapidated condition.
Experts have already suggested that a minimum of 3,000 more cyclone shelters need to be built in the coastal belt. The lack of adequate number of cyclone shelters was one of the main reasons behind so many deaths. The country's sluggish economy is facing major shocks simultaneously from the internal and external sides for the first time in its history. Two consecutive floods and Cyclone Sidr caused the internal shock, while the external shock resulted from price hike of oil and food grains in the international market.
The combined loss to assets and output caused by floods stands at $ 1.4 billion. Though the economic loss wrought by terrible Cyclone Sidr is yet to be assessed, primary estimates reveal that it would be billions of dollars. The government badly needs to import 10 lakh tons of rice against the backdrop of huge crop loss due to the deadly cyclone.
To recover from the fallout of floods and cyclone is really a big challenge for this interim government. The donor countries and agencies have so far pledged over $550 million assistance for the cyclone-hit areas. The donors are also pledging more assistance. But the government needs huge funds for both short and long term rehabilitation of nearly 69 lakh people who have lost all their means of livelihood.
Rehabilitation of the cyclone-hit people is not the only crisis for Bangladesh. Its oil dependent economy is bracing itself for the worst, with the oil prices skyrocketing in the international market. The oil price, which was $70 a barrel in July, is now $100 a barrel.
Bangladesh spent $20 billion to import oil last year, with huge subsidy from the national exchequer. The recent oil price hike has given the government the critical choice of whether to adjust prices at the risk of a knock-on effect on boro cultivation, or to keep it unadjusted, bearing more loss.
The urgent need of the hour for the government is to announce a national austerity program to check all unnecessary spending in government offices in a bid to address the sudden pressure on the economy due to natural calamities and persisting price hike of oil in the international market.
The government announced a 16-point austerity program in September 2005 to address the crisis due to oil price hike. The major austerity measures included cutbacks on fuel consumption by the ministers and government officers, curtailing of foreign trips by senior government officers, and ban on purchase of new vehicles from the revenue budget.
It also proposed that shops, markets and roadside billboards consuming huge electricity should by switched off at 8.00 pm, and lights on one side of the streets should also be switched off at night as a part of the austerity measures.
The extravagant way in which the government and autonomous bodies have been working over many years has frequently been a cause of embarrassment for the nation. For a resource-constrained country, it often makes a mockery of our economic conditions when a big delegation travels abroad on any trifling occasion.
Austerity ought not to be confined only to the matter of restriction the foreign visits of high government officials. Government functionaries, and even members of their families, use vehicles beyond their allotted number and time. This should be stopped forthwith in order to curb the misuse of fuel.
The government also announced austerity program in August 2004 for rehabilitation of the flood-ravaged economy of the country. The calls for austerity have often been made before, only to end up without any substantial benefit. Certainly, such an ostentatious austerity will do nothing.
Of course, there are many areas where the government can easily cut down on spending. Unless the government becomes serious about austerity, adopting stringent measures to slash down all unnecessary expenses to overcome the fallout of floods, cyclone, and oil price, it may leave people infuriated as their sufferings have been intensified.
A.N.M. Nurul Haque is a columnist of The Daily Star.
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