The joint assessment mission of the World Bank (WB) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) Sunday presented its initial findings on flood-damage to assets and output in Bangladesh, which stood at US$2.2 billion.  

The initial assessment did not include losses incurred from the third phase of flood in September, which would be worked out and added to the main report over the next few weeks, the official Bangladesh News Agency reported.

The two banks will also figure out the need requirement for flood rehabilitation in October.

World Bank Country Director Christine I Wallich said the size of the annual development program of Bangladesh for the current fiscal may be larger than the original one in the backdrop of the huge expenditure for flood rehabilitation.

Wallich further pointed out that the country's gross domestic product (GDP) growth of this fiscal may be slowing down to 5 percent compared to last year's 5.5 percent, while the ADB earlier in its economic outlook report projected the country's GDP growth at 4.8 percent.

The joint assessment mission has proposed a three-pronged response to the flood damage and about how to face it in short, medium and long-term perspectives.

The first phase refers up to 15 months time when urgent rehabilitation activities in critical sectors will be carried out. It includes repair of roads, water supply and sanitation, health and water resource management, municipal infrastructure, social protection, as well as housing and upgrading flood and cyclone shelters.

The second phase will be extending up to five years focusing on needs of critical sectors, including social and physical infrastructure. It will include recovery program for roads, water resource management and such other things under long-term disaster preparedness and response.

The third phase will focus on mainstreaming hazard resistant criteria in regular development process, such as ensuring reliability of early warning and weather forecast, and opening dialogue with India on joint flood response and management.

Wallich said the WB will be working to implement activities in all these phases while the ADB will mainly focus on the second and the third phases.

She said industries, including small and medium industries, textiles and garments units have suffered and exports may see some slow-down, and the balance of payment may aggravate pulling down reserves.

The WB official, however, said that the situation may be manageable, and there is no need to worry about it too much.

The joint mission also lauded the Bangladeshi government's role in dealing with the flooding, saying it has done a commendable job with the help from non-governmental organizations in responding to the need of flood emergency and assisting flood-hit people.

The government opened about 5,500 emergency shelters to house 1.7 million homeless, mobilized over 3,400 medical teams and opened 800 temporary health centers to handle the affected people.

It also started vulnerable group feeding program two months ahead of the schedule, besides formulating and implementing a number of other assistance programs to mitigate the sufferings of the flood-hit people, added the joint mission.

(Xinhua News Agency September 27, 2004)