Bangladesh cyclone victims face humanitarian crisis: EU

(DHAKA) - More than 200,000 people made homeless by a cyclone last year face a "catastrophic" humanitarian crisis because river embankments have not been repaired, the European Union said Tuesday.

Cyclone Aila, which tore through southern Bangladesh in May last year, killed 300 people and destroyed 4,000 kilometres (2,500 miles) of roads and river embankments, which prevent the flooding of low-lying areas.

The breached embankments led to villages and fields being flooded, forcing 200,000 people from their homes, "many of whom are still living in appalling conditions on strips of raised land," the EU said in a statement.

"If the embankments aren't repaired urgently, the humanitarian consequences will be catastrophic," added Stefan Frowein, the head of EU's delegation to Bangladesh.

Since the 1960s, the government has built up a network of embankments along rivers and canals in southern Bangladesh to prevent salt water flooding low-lying areas, allowing millions of people to cultivate the land.

The statement from the EU came less than a month after 18 charities criticised the government for not building the embankments quickly, forcing the victims to remain homeless idefinitely.

The government maintains that reconstruction will be finished before the rainy season begins in May.