Inadequate Disaster Response Strategy
According to the Bangladesh government, the navy has built up embankments and cement
cyclone shelters on Bhasan Char with the help of Chinese construction company Sinohydro
and British civil engineering company HR Wallingford in order to protect against the
region’s frequent cyclones and monsoons. 63 “We have finished 43 percent of the
reinforced dam,” project director Commodore Rashed Sattar told AFP in April. 64
But experts are concerned that the levee would not protect the island in the Bay of Bengal,
where the highest storm surges in the world occur. 65 The waters near Bhasan Char have a
tidal range of up to 6 meters and storm surges in the bay have often exceeded 5 meters,
with one reaching 13.7 meters. 66 There have been 27 storms in the Bay of Bengal in the last
60 years with storm surges greater than 5 meters. 67 HR Wallingford stated in a letter to
Human Rights Watch on May 25, 2021 that its design uses cyclone modeling that “allows a
robust prediction of extreme cyclone conditions,” and that its “work meets internationally
adopted best practice and the scheme has been subject to rigorous, state-of-the-art
modelling.” 68
63 HR Wallingford informed Human Rights Watch in a letter on May 25, 2021 that the company is “providing independent,
impartial consultancy services for the Bangladesh Navy to design a coastal stabilisation and flood protection scheme for the
island of Bhasan Char.” See also Mohammad Al-Masum Molla, “Bhasan Char: 4-layer protection for key island,” Dhaka
Tribune, November 4, 2020, https://www.thedailystar.net/backpage/news/bhasan-char-4-layer-protection-key-island1988921 (accessed April 28, 2021); Ruma Paul, Clare Baldwin, Andrew R.C. Marshall, “Floating Island: New Home for
Rohingya Refugees Emerges in Bay of Bengal,” Reuters, February 21, 2018, https://www.reuters.com/article/us-myanmarrohingya-island/floating-island-new-home-for-rohingya-refugees-emerges-in-bay-of-bengal-idUSKCN1G603T (accessed April
15, 2021); Burma Campaign, “HR Wallingford,” https://burmacampaign.org.uk/take-action/hr-wallingford/ (accessed April
22, 2021); https://www.ecowatch.com/rohingya-refugees-bhasan-char-2649541601.html.
64 “Cyclone Season Awaits Thousands of Rohingya on Bangladesh Island,” Al Jazeera, April 1, 2021,
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/4/1/cyclone-season-awaits-thousands-of-rohingya-on-bangladesh-island (accessed
April 27, 2021).
65 Soutik Biswas, “Amphan: Why Bay of Bengal is the World’s Hotbed of Tropical Cyclones,” BBC, May 19, 2020,
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-52718531 (accessed April 27, 2021); Hal F. Needham, Barry D. Keim, David
Sathiaraj, “A review of tropical cyclone‐generated storm surges: Global data sources, observations, and impacts,” Reviews of
Geophysics, vol. 53, iss. 2 (2015) accessed April 28, 2021, doi: 10.1002/2014RG000477.
66 Human Rights Watch interview with Hal Needham, storm surge scientist, founder and president of Marine Weather and
Climate, Galveston, Texas, April 28, 2021; see also “A review of tropical cyclone‐generated storm surges.”” “A remote home
for the Rohingya,” Reuters Graphics, December 31, 2018, http://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/rngs/MYANMARROHINGYA/010060Z21XP/index.html (accessed April 28, 2021).
67 Hal F. Needham, Barry D. Keim, David Sathiaraj, “A review of tropical cyclone‐generated storm surges: Global data
sources, observations, and impacts,” Reviews of Geophysics, vol. 53, iss. 2 (2015) accessed April 28, 2021, doi:
10.1002/2014RG000477.
68 Letter from Dr. Bruce Tomlinson, Chief Executive Officer, HR Wallingford, to Human Rights Watch, May 25, 2021.
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