Information seeking in a flood

Barbara RyanSchool of Humanities and Communication,

University of Southern QueenslandToowoomba, Australia

Adaptive Capacity of

Poor Women

PRESENTED BY

Tasneem Chowdhury FahimSabrina ArefinMonira SharminZuhair Ahmed KowshikLutfunnaharRuna Akter

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Flow of the PresentationIntroduction

Some common disasters in Bangladesh

Vulnerability

Vulnerability of Poor Women in Bangladesh during Disaster and Post Disaster Period

What is Adaptive Capacity

Adaptive Capacity of Poor Women in some common Disasters in Bangladesh

Some unheard stories

Some Observations

Conclusion

INTRODUCTIONo Bangladesh is a disaster prone country. Because

of gender based inequalities, girls and women are typically at higher risk than the boys and men in our country.

o Nasreen (1995) shows in her pioneer research that “Disasters affect both women and men but the burden of coping with disasters falls heavily on women”

o She also told that additional works are also performed by women to deal with adverse situation. So, adaptive capacities of poor women are very important to cope with disasters.

Some common disasters in BangladeshNatural Disasters:- Flood- Cyclone- Drought- Earthquake- Landslide- River bank erosion- Salinity Intrusion- Tornado- Heat wave and cold

wave

Human Induced Disasters:- Fire - Building collapse- Water logging- Chemical spill- Oil spill- Militant attack

VULNERABILITY

o Vulnerability is the characteristics and circumstances of a community, system or asset that make it susceptible to the damaging effects of a hazard (UNISDR)

o It is used to describe states of susceptibility to harm, powerlessness and marginality of both physical and social systems

Vulnerability of Poor Women in Bangladesh during Disaster and Post Disaster Period

During Disaster Period:

o Poor rural women don't have any authority, decision making power, financial sufficiency and have to wait for her master's decision.

o Poor women have superstation, wrong belief, religious belief

o Poor rural women are fatalistic, not realistic which poses further vulnerability on them

o Pregnant women and elderly women don't have the easy physical condition to go to shelter center in the disaster condition.

o They don't want to go to shelter center believing in their fate.

o Lack of Nutritious food, pure water and vulnerable physical condition make them more vulnerable

Post Disaster Period

General women:

- Loss of income, savings and livelihood

- Limited access to market

- Destruction of houses and homestead cause great pressure on women after disaster

- Women’s security and dignity are threatened in shelter center

- Harassment and loss of privacy in shelter center

- Deprivation in relief queues

Pregnant and Elderly women:

- Mental stress in pregnant condition.

- Lack of mid wife, doctor and medicine in shelter center

- Lack of nutrition and hygiene facilities

- Severe anxiety disorder

- Lack of supportive devices (crutch, wheel chair, ramp, hearing device etc.) for elderly women and PWDs

Adolescent Girls:

- Lack of hygiene kit (Soap, sanitary napkin, antiseptic, pure water).

- Sexual harassment- Lack of nutritious

food- Lack of security

ADAPTIVE CAPACITYo Adaptive Capacity is the general ability of

institutions, systems and individuals to adjust to potential damage, to take advantage of opportunities or to cope with the consequences of any harmful event or disaster

o Adaptive Capacity is also known as creative flexibility in decision making and problem solving

Source: http://www.careclimatechange.org/tk/integration/en/key_concepts/adaptive_capacity.html

Adaptive Capacity of Poor Women in some common disasters of

Bangladesh

Adaptive Capacities for Cyclone

o To impede and decrease cyclone risk, coastal afforestation is the best thing done by poor rural women.

o Plantation of big branched trees around the homestead is a very good approach done by poor women

o Poor women try to raise the height of plinth to overcome their risk due to cyclone

o Poor women help elderly people, children and disabled people of their families during cyclone.

Contd…

o Poor women set the domestic animals free from sheds to allow them to survive from surge water in a rapid onset of cyclone

o Searching for kith & kin and looking for housing utensils and means of livelihood are the adaptive capacities of poor rural women during or after cyclone.

Adaptive Capacities for Flood

o Poor women use roof top of their houses for living and cooking, which is the best adaptive capacity for short duration flood.

o Being ready to go to shelter with all important belongings is the another best adaptive capacity for long term flood, which is done by rural women

o Taking cattle while going to the flood shelter or taking care of cattle is also done by poor women

Contd…o It is the concern of a poor mother to

take hygiene kit and sanitary napkin while going to flood shelter center for her adolescent girl

o Pure water, which is the vital need for any person or family during any flood situation is also collected by poor rural women

o Women make the savings of crop and money so that they can use that during rainy days and flood days

Adaptive Capacities for Drought

o Nowadays Bangladeshi poor rural women are switching away from water intensive cultivation of crops like paddy. They are sowing potato on the land and receiving a bumper harvest.

o Women are doing non-agricultural farming like rearing livestock, poultry, dairy farm, cattle fattening, fish culture, making cow dung stick as fuel

o Homestead gardening is another good approach by poor women

Contd…o Many of poor rural women are engaged in

small handicraft and cottage industry like sewing staff during their leisure time which helps them to earn additional money during drought time.

o Poor women collect water from distant places during drought time.

o Rural women collect water at the rain time using their indigenous knowledge. Some of them use saree to collect rain water, some collect water using pipe from their roof.

Adaptive Capacities for Salinity Intrusion

o Plantation of saline tolerant tree species is the best practice by rural poor women.

o Vertical Horticulture allows households and women in Bangladesh to grow vegetables despite salinity. Homestead gardening is also a good approach by poor rural women.

o Cooking is a great problem in salinity prone area. Women don’t put extra salt in food. Sometimes excess amount of salt is effused from the water by boiling. This is the adaptive capacity of poor women.

Contd…o Rainwater harvesting is done by

coastal poor women for drinking.

o Women are doing shrimp farming as an income generating sector.

Adaptive Capacities for Water Logging

o Poor women are doing diversification of agriculture through introduction of new cropping systems such as cultivation of vegetable and spices on Baira (hydroponics) during water logging

o They dig soil to make drainage system to keep them safe from water logging

o Homestead based forestry, horticulture and integrated farming are the poor women’s adaptive capacities.

o Women collect pure water from distant areas for their families during the time of water logging.

Unheard Story-1

Mst Piara Begum is a 40 years old woman. Once upon a time, she and her husband were extremely poor. Char erosion forced them to move out from home to new char land many times. At last they came and settled to Digholkandi village of Sariakandi upazila under Bogra District. It was very difficult for them to escape from extreme poverty due to instability. In 2013, Piara took loan from a somiti and purchased one goat. This goat is now grown and has given birth four. From those goats, Piara sold one of them and now she has total four goats. The profit from this sale was used for her husband’s treatment. Her husband was unemployed since he was suffering from illness long time. He lost his one leg.

Contd…

Now he is cured and engages himself in different types of income generation activities. They have now a total of four goats. These assets help the family to meet almost all of their dietary needs. Apart from goat rearing, Piara also produces handmade products. By selling the handmade products she can also earn money which can help her to maintain her family satisfactorily.

Unheard Story-2Nomita Biswas is a 32 years old farmer who lives in Chitalmari of Bagerhat. There farming is a challenge due to salinity intrusion in soil. Vegetables are not grown here, as a result green vegetable is a rare and costly commodity for Chitalmari people. The only areas of land that remain dry are the raised dike, known locally as ghers, which are built to serve as embankments surrounding fish ponds. Namita could not buy vegetables previously due to lack of money. But when she started dike farming, she began to get fresh vegetables which she can sell and her family can get daily. Dike farming has changed Nomita’s life. Now she can earn much money by selling fresh vegetables.

Some Observations:o Women use their indigenous knowledge to adapt with the disasters. So

preserving indigenous knowledge is very important.

o Collecting water is the common duty of poor women during disaster times.

o To adapt with the disasters women do homestead gardening.

o Poor women are concerned about their family as well as cattle during disaster

o Women do much more sacrifice than men of the family.

o For some disasters Bangladeshi poor women don’t have adaptive capacity:

- Garments/factory fire- Building collapse- River Bank Erosion - Earthquake- Tornado

CONCLUSION:For the reduction of the bad impacts of disasters women adopt different types of strategies which are related to their gender identity. These strategies are necessary for enhancing the sustainability of their family. Although women use their indigenous coping and adaptation measures in disaster events, these are not organized and sufficient for their social and economic uplifts or empowerment.

It is necessary to recognize the roles and contributions of women and thereby strengthen their existing capacities to face the future challenges of both natural and human induced disaster.