Disaster experiences, associated problems and lessons in southwestern coastal Bangladesh: exploring through participatory rural appraisal to enhance resilience

Figures & data

Figure 1. Map of study area (Source: (Quader et al., 2017), Note: Studied districts are marked with red colour.

Table 1. Depicting the study area.

District	Upazila (Sub-District)	Union	Village	Area (sq. km)	Population	Main Occupations
Shatkhira	Tala	Islamkhati	Vobanipur	1	800	Agriculture labor, Daily labor, Fishing and Van/Rickshaw pulling
			Kzirdanga	1.5	1140	Agriculture labor, Daily labor, Fishing, Small business and Van/Rickshaw pulling
			Kharail	0.5	580	Daily labor, Fishing and Van/Rickshaw pulling
		Khirsha	Balia	2.5	3000	Agriculture labor, Daily labor, Fishing, Fisheries Business and Horse cart pulling
	Shyamnagar	Gabura	Chakbara	3	2285	Shrimp farming, Fishing and Shrimp Fry Collection in Creeks, Agriculture
Bagerhat	Shoronkhola	2 No. Khuntakatha	Purbo Rajoir	1.5	2000	Wood and Honey Collection from Sundarbans, Fishing, Share Cropping and Daily labor
		Rayenda	Lacortola	2.5	3000	Wood and Honey Collection from Sundarbans, Fishing, Share Cropping and Daily labor
Patuakhali	Kholapara	Mahipur	Shudhirpur	2	1686	Agriculture labor, Daily labor, Fishing
Barguna	Barguna Sadar	10 No. Niltona	Amtala-Garzanbunia	2.5	2495	Agriculture labor, Daily labor, Fishing

Figure 2. Data collection at different villages.

Table 2. Approaches of data collection and outcomes.

Approaches	Outcome/ Analysis
Participatory Rapid Rural Appraisal (PRRA)	Disaster Experiences-Table Problems in previous Disasters-summarizing all into five main problems and listing with causes and effects Lesson Learnt from previous Disasters-Diagram Present Problems and causes and effects of the problems-Problem Tree Disaster Calendar Present Stakeholders (formal and informal institutions) analysis- Venn Diagram
Focused Group Discussion (FGD),	SWOT (Strength, Weakness, Opportunity and Threat) Analysis to validate PRA findings.
Key Informant Discussion (KID) and	Validation of the outcome from PRA and FGD
Field observation	Data Validation

Table 3. Disaster experiences in southwestern coastal villages since 1980s to 2021.

Source: PRA moderated by authors from 2014–2021

Note: Year 2020 and 2019 are added by the author. Names and dates of the cyclones are 15 November 2007- Cyclone Sidr, 25 May 2009- cyclone Aila, 16 May 2013- Cyclone Mahasen, 21 May 2016-Cyclone Roanu, 9 November 2019-Cyclone Bulbul, 20 May 2020-Cyclone Amphan, 26 May 2021-CycloneYaas.

Table 4. Problems faced in previous disasters and lesson learnt.

Problems in Previous Disaster	Cause	Effect
1. Damage and loss of houses, crop and livestock	1.1 Failure/rapture of earthen embankment 1.2 Most of the houses were temporary in nature 1.3 Overflow of river 1.4 Siltation of river 1.5 Did not receive any early warning	1.1 Lived in school, roads and temporary houses for long time 1.2 Loss of productive assets increased indebtedness 1.3 Women and kids faced much hardship 1.4 Insecurity 1.5 Some families migrated to cities/town
2. Food and water crisis	2.1 No income earning for more than 2 weeks 2.2 Were not aware to store food and water for emergency 2.3 Road communication was disrupted and no way to go for income/search for food 2.4 Salinity and arsenic problem 2.5 Overflow of the river 2.6 Submerge of tube-wells	2.1 Passed days with starvation 2.2 Faced different health problems and expenses for that and malnutrition problem of the kids 2.3 Sold some valuable assets (like gold) to arrange food 2.4 Increased indebtedness 2.5 Sometimes had to drink and use saline and arsenic-contaminated water 2.6 Faced severe hardship to arrange fresh drinking water
3. No income earning opportunity within the locality for several weeks	3.1 Whole area was flooded 3.2 No person to higher day labor 3.3 Disruption of roads and difficulties to go outside for income	3.1 No money to buy food, medicine and other emergency needs 3.2 Increased indebtedness 3.3 Sold assets to arrange money for daily expenses
4. Disruption of road communication	4.1 Overflow of river 4.2 Failure of embankment 4.3 Heavy rainfall and no drainage facility 4.4 Most of the roads are low lying and earthen	4.1 Hardship to go for work, hospital or any places 4.2 Needed to arrange boat/made floating platform with banana trunks to go any places
5. Toilet washed away	5.1 Plinth of Toilets was made of mud and low in height 5.2 Heavy rainfall for more than a week 5.3 Overflow of river 5.4 No drainage system 5.5 Siltation of river	5.1 Sufferings and hardship for lack of toilet 5.2 Water pollution 5.3 Health problem 5.4 Hardship to repair the toilet again

Source: Field survey 2014–2019

Figure 3. Practices and awareness after lessons learned from previous disasters.

Figure 4. Problem tree of southwestern coastal villages.

Table 5. Problems ranking in southwestern coastal area of Bangladesh.

Problems	Rank	Expert and people`s opinion
Drinking Water Crisis	1st	Almost 100% of people suffer from drinking water crisis
Poor Road Communication	2nd	More than 90% people suffer for poor road communication
Poverty	3rd	More than 80% people are poor
Poor Sanitation Facility	4th	More than 60% people has poor sanitary condition
Health Problem	5th	More than 50% people has water, sanitation and malnutrition related health problem

Figure 5. Glimpses of coastal villages’ problems (poor road condition, unhealthy sanitation, and poor infrastructure facilities).

Figure 6. Stakeholders networking and infrastructures for disaster resilienct coastal community.

Quader, A. M., Khan, A. U., & Matthieu, K. (2017). Assessing risks from cyclones for human lives and livelihoods in the coastal region of Bangladesh. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 14(8), 831. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph14080831

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