This newspaper reported yesterday in the story “Authorities clueless in the Sundarbans,” that in 2008, an oil spill from a Shell pipeline crack in the Niger delta destroyed 1,000 hectares of forest and affected 30,000 people. What were our authorities doing when that calamitous news was being broadcast all over international media? Doing anything other than learning from it, it appears.
The report also reminds us about the spillage at Borguna district’s Bishkhali River, a spillage of a few hundred litres. Lessons learned – zip. What did the authorities do when a tanker cracked open at the Karnaphuli River not too long ago? Pray to the Almighty with an SOS prayer, perhaps.
Disaster management has always been a contentious issue in the 43-year long history of Bangladesh, but the current state of affairs is unacceptable by all accounts. We have been very poor for a greater part of those years, but the state of the economy as we see today calls for better disaster preparedness.
The long history of damages done by cyclones has taught us the need to make people aware and build shelters and instruct people what to do.
With the help of donors and other relevant organisations, the governments have done a better job of dealing with that menace. However, rehabilitation of people affected by Sidr and Aila is still up in the air, and millions suffer till today from the ravages.
It took several launch disasters for the authorities to wake up, somewhat, as we have seen some earnest efforts from them, during the last Eid-ul-Azha, to keep launches from the traditional holiday overloading.
But, regretfully, no such efforts for staying prepared for a disaster like the one that happened at the Shela River on Tuesday morning.
The Sundarbans – a World Heritage Site – is a unique marvel of nature, the world’s biggest mangrove forest, home to the Royal Bengal Tiger and various other species of flora and fauna. It is no ordinary forest. It deserves special care as a natural barrier to the inevitable cyclones that foment every year at the Bay of Bengal.
It is, economically, of immense importance, for its neighbourhood provides the breeding ground for fish and aquatic mammals, thereby keeping alive a rich source of protein for the people and providing livelihoods to millions, permanent or itinerant, who depend on the fish reserves. The seasonal “Bawwalis” and the honey-collectors are also dependent on the mangrove.
Now, who takes care of the Sundarbans? The West Bengal government has a ministry for the development of the Sundarbans, they look after all matters related to their part of the mangrove, which is appreciably smaller than the size of ours. And it is plain to see that the West Bengal government is doing a far better job in keeping their part in prime condition. The authorities there, with the head warden in lead, are already taking measures to stop any infiltration of this spillage in their part. That’s preparedness for you.
In Bangladesh, it’s a quagmire. The forest department is in charge of the forest per se, while the environment ministry is supposed to keep eyes and ears open for any environmental faux pas. Now, the Sundarbans has several rivers all around, with canals and creeks running through and around it. These rivers and water channels fall under the supervision of the internal waterways ministry, with all the vessels plying using these waterways.
Now you see how a quagmire gets formed. The waterways minister tried immediately to placate the people through the media sending a deputy to the spot. Many “wiseheads” from various authorities started arriving too.
As is the modus operandi, inevitably, committees and investigation teams get formed in these conditions and it was no different here. These latest committees immediately set up a high power committee with an additional secretary in the chair and eight or nine other bureaucrats and academics.
They are scratching their heads since reports last came in. The Kanadari – 10 vessels of the navy stocked with dispersant of fuel and at the spot – are kept standing as no one is sure as to what damage those dispersants will do to the biodiversity in the long run. The bacterial method of dispersal will require time to import, even then it will require more time to disperse the thick, heavy oil, but the cost is prohibitive.
So the interministerial group have now called the “authorities” to urge the people nearby to jump into the oil-infested waters of Shela to manually collect the cakes of furnace oil.
This could take ages, and there is no concern shown as to what damages to their health that could cause. The navy ship stands helpless, staring at the remaining beauty of the Sundarbans!
The cry I want to make is for a “Ministry for the Sundarbans.” We have seen many interdepartmental think-tanks sit to solve matters of emergencies, but the results are dismal – we end up with a report that gathers dust with a million other such reports and hardly any action is ever taken as per the suggestions of those reports.
If the West Bengal state can have a ministry in the matter, why can’t we? Under the status quo, a Bengal tiger gets down from the jurisdiction of Ministry of Forests to swim across a water-body belonging to the Waterways Ministry, and then back on forestry controlled by the other side to hunt a deer. It’s ridiculous.
People have been screaming for a separate ministry for the garment industry for better co-ordination of efforts to handle the problems of that crucial sector, but alas, to no avail.
Now the Sundarbans is screaming for one, but does anyone hear it?
“If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” – a philosophical thought experiment that raises questions regarding observation and knowledge of reality. The Sundarbans is making a loud cry for its survival, but no one seems to be there to listen.
