Several weeks before the start of the monsoon season in Bangladesh, more than 260,000 families made homeless by Cyclone Sidr five months ago have yet to receive help to rebuild their houses, the Red Cross said on Monday.

The monster storm struck the southwestern coast in November, triggering a 5-metre (15-foot) storm surge. Flooding and high winds killed at least 4,400 people and wrecked nearly 1.5 million homes.

The Red Cross says hundreds of thousands of families are still living under plastic sheets and tarpaulins. But with monsoon rains due to begin in early June, assistance is getting to less than a fifth of those who need it.

"The combined efforts of all aid agencies as well as bilateral government pledges for core housing are likely to reach around 60,000 affected families," said Graham Saunders, head of shelter for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC). "But this is only a fraction of those who need help."

Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund approved $217.7 million in emergency loans to Bangladesh to help the government deal with severe damage caused by the cyclone and flooding last year.

As well as struggling to provide shelter, the government has had to fund a sharp rise in disaster-related imports, including large volumes of food - at a time when prices are rocketing.

Retail prices of wheat, edible oil and pulses have doubled in Bangladesh over the past year. Saunders told AlertNet the spike in food costs was making life even harder for those affected by flooding.

"Most people have to rebuild their houses using their own resources, as well as depending on that money to buy food. They are going to be thinking about what they need today, rather than longer-term," he said.

Aid agencies are urging the government and the international community to come up with a plan to ensure that affected families have safe and adequate shelter.

"Without a roof over their heads people are also exposed to serious health and hygiene risks. The situation is deeply worrying," said Nick Southern, country director for Care.

Relief groups also warned in a joint statement that, among the 1.15 million affected households that have started to rebuild on their own, some are constructing homes that will leave them just as vulnerable to disasters in the future.

"Some of the current building techniques are outright dangerous and could cause injuries once the winds and rains arrive," said Heather Blackwell of Oxfam, which belongs to a group of aid agencies coordinating shelter assistance. "We need to make sure that people are aware of simple and practical techniques that make their homes more resistant to storms, floods and cyclones."

Measures include constructing a raised plinth and a robust frame, fixing down roofs properly and thinking about how houses can be best located in relation to bushes, trees and prevailing winds.

International aid agencies hope to enlist top-level support from the Bangladeshi government to promote the message about building back safer. Saunders said opportunities to do this are often missed right after disasters, when other needs like food and health are more urgent priorities.

"We face a common problem which can't be fixed in two or three weeks," said Saunders. "Shelter is always under-represented in aid responses, and we're going to get caught out time and time again."

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