{"id":20081259,"date":"2021-12-08T12:30:00","date_gmt":"2021-12-08T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thethirdpole.net\/?p=81259"},"modified":"2022-07-11T10:57:14","modified_gmt":"2022-07-11T05:27:14","slug":"how-bangladesh-is-beating-the-odds-on-climate-disaster-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/en\/climate\/how-bangladesh-is-beating-the-odds-on-climate-disaster-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"How Bangladesh is beating the odds on climate disaster deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When Cyclone Bhola hit what is now present-day Bangladesh in 1970, it killed 300,000 to 500,000 people. Among the dead were 52 of Abul Kashem\u2019s relatives, swept away by what is still considered the deadliest storm ever recorded<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI had to start my life from zero,\u201d Kashem, now 80, told The New Humanitarian from his home in Dalalkandi, a village on the coast of Bangladesh about 360 kilometres south of the capital, Dhaka. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor’s note<\/p>

This article was\u00a0originally published\u00a0by The New Humanitarian<\/a>, a news agency specialised in reporting humanitarian crises.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

A lot has changed since Bhola struck in 1970. Bangladesh\u2019s<\/a> population has more than doubled<\/a>, and global heating has triggered even more frequent extreme events in the country \u2013 one of the world\u2019s most vulnerable<\/a> when it comes to weather-driven disasters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bangladesh, however, has also drastically reduced its cyclone-related deaths<\/a>, by more than 100 fold since 1970 \u2013 an accomplishment noted in disaster risk reduction circles and backed up by a data-driven investigation by The New Humanitarian. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The six-month investigation, which combined analyses of risk and resilience datasets with on-the-ground reporting, also identified other \u201cpositive outliers\u201d \u2013 countries with similar disaster risk and economic profiles that have been surprisingly successful at reducing deaths. Among them were Cuba, Indonesia, Mozambique, the Philippines and Vietnam. <\/p>\n\n\n\n