Children in remote areas worst victims of disasters: Report
The children living in remote areas, including coastal islands, char lands, and hilly regions, are the worst victims of natural disasters such as cyclone, flood and tidal surge and drowning.
Hatiya is the second biggest island of the country, and an estuary of the mighty Meghna river is located on the western side of the island and the Bay of Bengal on its northeastern side.
Hatiya often witnesses inundation due to tidal surge and cyclone that claim a large number of lives and the number of children die in disasters is much more than the aged people.
As for example, around 35,000 people died in a tidal surge in 1970 in Hatiya upazila and half of them were children. Besides, 5,000 people were killed in a surge in 1991, of them over 2,500 were children.
According to a UNICEF report, a total of 946 incidents of death occurred due to floods during the first nine months of 2009 in the country and out of them 816 died in drowning, of which 90 percent were children.
An estimated 30,000 people, including children, die of unnatural reasons every year in Bangladesh, of which 17,000 people aged between one and 18 die in drowning, said a survey of Bangladesh Health and Injury (BHI).
A joint survey of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, UNICEF and The Alliance for Safe Children (TASC) revealed that the deaths due to drowning between the age one and 17 are more than the number of deaths due to pneumonia and diarrhoea.
ICDDR, B and John Hopkins University jointly conducted a research that says lack of awareness is solely responsible for children's deaths due to drowning.
Bangladesh Red Crescent Society (BRCS) has taken some steps to create awareness among the rural people about the things to be done during natural calamities.
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