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| Village girls going to school on a rehabilitated rural road in Serajganj. |
How ADB Is Helping the Poor in Bangladesh
Disaster Mitigation
Updated December 2006
ADB Helps Mitigate Flood Damage
Responding quickly to the 2004 devastating floods, ADB approved the Emergency Flood Damage Rehabilitation Project (EFDRP) to support Bangladesh in rehabilitating damaged infrastructure. The project is being implemented with full transparency at an exceptional pace progressing ahead of the schedule, and is expected to be completed within its two-year time limit.
EFDRP supports sustainable economic growth by reducing the devastating impact of floods. The project focuses on rehabilitating damaged infrastructure (roads, bridges, railways, and water resources) in priority areas identified in consultation with the Government, public and private sector stakeholders, civil society, and affected communities. The project also provides civil works, equipment and materials, and consulting services for project design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation. During rehabilitation, appropriate and cost-effective flood-proofing measures and design standards are adopted to minimize future flood damage.
The project was initiated soon after the 2004 floods that affected over 36 million people (25% of the population), inundating 38% of the land (across 39 districts) for 55 days causing severe damage to infrastructure, disrupting economic activities and inflicting heavy losses in agriculture and industrial output. The floods damaged crops on about 1.3 million hectares of land, 28,000 kilometers (km) of roads, 400 km of railway, and 25,000 km of flood embankments. According to the damage and needs assessment undertaken jointly by ADB and World Bank, the combined losses amounted to at least $2.3 billion, constituting 3.9% of the country’s GDP.
The project's results are clearly evident, as traffic now flows on rehabilitated roads and railways; rural towns are being served by rebuilt water supply, sanitation and drainage infrastructure; villages are protected by repaired flood embankments, and farmers are harvesting crops on previously flooded land. Recognizing the transparency and efficiency of implementation, the project has been recognized as the best performing development project by the Government.
Due to the enormous scale of damage, ADB took early initiative to coordinate with the donor community and ultimately obtained cofinancing from the Governments of the Netherlands and Sweden totaling $27.7 million equivalent. ADB has provided Bangladesh with eight emergency rehabilitation assistance loans totaling $376 million prior to the 2004 floods.
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