Rain, rain, go away
• Bangladesh prays for floods to ease
By James Reynolds BBC Jerusalem correspondent
Tuesday, July 27, 2004
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Boat building
boom in Banglades
Photo by Sun News Publishing |
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Bangladesh floods annually with the monsoon rains, but not
like this More than half of the country's 64 districts are
underwater, up to 20m people are marooned or homeless and
the government is considering appealing for international
aid if it lasts much longer.
"One week back I used to feel we were in the normal stage
but as the days go on and on I found this is getting more
and more serious," says Salim Bhuiyan, executive engineer
at the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre.
"If you consider the north and north-east of the country
in the past one and half months, at times it has crossed the
danger level."
Knee-deep
Munshiganj, south of the capital, Dhaka, is also badly affected.
Already people have been wading knee-deep in the streets of
the main town for more than a week and it is likely to get
worse.
The district lies where the three rivers that cross Bangladesh
meet, and much of the water that has caused chaos across South
Asia must pass here on its way to the sea.
Local officials have to take to boats to distribute aid to
outlying areas.
Abdul Barki is the civil servant in charge
"The problem is gradually increasing. Many roads were
not submerged but now all the roads in this Upazila region
are cut off."
He said the main problem was communicating with the people
who desperately required help.
We puttered through a vast area that was once fields and is
now a lake.
Where rice should be growing after the recent planting season,
water hyacinths bobbed on the silt-brown surface.
People were camping on the bridges, some of the quarter of
a million people affected by the flooding in this small district
alone.
We found Josna and her baby son sitting in a shelter made
of bamboo, straw and corrugated iron on stilts.
They were surrounded by miles of water. It flowed just a few
inches under the floor of their makeshift home and it was
rising.
"Is anything worse than this?" she asked.
They had moved to the shelter a week ago when their house
was submerged, soon they will be flooded out for a second
time.
"It is possible to live without eating for one day or
to stay in someone else's house for a couple of days but this
is going on. How can I live with the baby like this? If he
falls in he'll be washed away."
Embankments
The local officials had come to distribute rice in the nearby
village of Tongibari.
Hundreds of people were gathered around a table shouting and
shoving.
The names of the most desperately needy were called out and
they came forward to receive their ration.
Ten kilograms of rice, enough to last a family for just a
few days. It is a start but it is not much.
"It is not possible to survive on this food. I can only
manage two or three days with this rice," said one man.
"It's not much but I have nothing else," said one
woman. "At least now I can cook and eat."
Across the flood-affected regions hundreds of thousands, perhaps
millions of people are moving to higher ground.
Often the embankments of roads are the only dry land left
and they are crowded with people and livestock.
Boat building is a boom industry.
Precarious
The big risk is epidemics.
In Munshiganj and other districts, emergency clinics have
been set up.
Doctors check for any cases of diarrhoea or cholera, hoping
to stop an outbreak early.
"If there is any source of disease we are ready,"
said Dr Mohammed Golam Kibria, the local health officer.
"We have medical teams and I think there should not be
a problem as all the people, the community as well as our
medical teams, they are all alert."
The victims of Bangladesh's floods are surviving for now,
the death toll has been remarkably low, but every day their
situation becomes more precarious.
"I think it will be dangerous if it continues for long
because people will be suffering," said Mustafizur Rahman,
deputy commissioner of Munshiganj.
"They have no shelter, their crops are damaged and there
are health hazards. We are endeavouring to protect them but
it is not sufficient. If it continues for long it will be
very hard for us to protect them."
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