Visual Assessment of

more than 3,000 Houses

in All Five Upa-Zilas of

Barguna District

The Assessment visited close to 3,500 houses in Barguna, covering all the residents of five wards (one from each Upa-Zila in Barguna District)

Compare the government's damage assessment in the shelter sector at the ward level with the realities in the field.

Assess the levels of recovery in the shelter sector already visible in affected communities.

Determine the rough accuracy of government population information.

Determine the remaining need for emergency shelter.

40 data collectors coming from seven local NGOs regularly working in the selected wards

5 supervisors that conduct regular spot checks of the data

Chalk marks on all surveyed houses to confirm the complete-ness and non-dupli-cation of the survey

To ensure that the data was being correctly collected a two-person team from the Dhaka SCG was sent to Barguna to visit the field and cross-check individual forms with houses from the randomly selected Betagi Upa-Zila.

The results confirmed the accuracy of the damage information, but cast doubt on the accuracy of recovery information.

The Barguna Ward Level Shelter Assessment did not collect accuracte recovery information.

Contributing Factors / Lessons Learned• Use of data collectors from assessed area creates

a large social pressure not to report recovery.• Recovery is often highly subjective at the

household level, but might be easier to come to a general village-wide consensus in a focus group discussion

Although a full comparison with MoFDM data is not yet available, it seems as if a lot of houses counted as “partially damaged” only suffered fairly superficially roofing damage.

Significant levels of self-recovery have been observed, but nearly no housing has improved its resistance to Cyclones

Extremely low levels (<10%) damage to tube wells

Remaining emergency shelter need translated into host family populations (living with neighbours) 5-10% of surveyed households.

No longer a widespread need for tarpaulin, plastic sheeting and other emergency shelter distributions

Strong need for core shelter programming, as well as general training and awareness raising on improved building techniques to improve cyclone-resistance of housing.