Flood victims neglected as Rohingya take centre stage

Flood-affected families who are surviving mostly on non-governmental support claim the country’s humanitarian attention has been diverted to the Rohingya crisis, leaving them in a miserable state. According to a source from the Department of Disaster Management (DDM), almost Tk57 million in cash and 17,721 metric tons of rice, dry foods and tin bundles were distributed to the victims of the monsoon flooding that ravaged 32 northern districts from early August. But many of the flood victims have alleged that government relief work was stopped by the onset of the Rohingya crisis in late August. “The government support is not sufficient and the non-governmental relief on which we used to depend has now been stopped, since most of the NGOs and donors are now focused on the Rohingya problem,” said Amena Begum, an elderly woman of Mogolhat union under Lalmonirhat Sadar thana. According to the DDM, at least 150 people were killed and around 104,000 houses were completely destroyed in the flooding, with a further 634,000 houses partly damaged. “We went to bed hungry for two weeks during the flood and my house was washed away,” Amena said. “We received government relief only once, which included 10kg of rice, 1kg of lentils, 1kg of sugar, 1ltr of oil, a dozen candles and a match box. I hardly managed a week on the government support.” On a visit to the flood-affected northern districts last week, the Dhaka Tribune found people were still struggling to recover from the losses and damages while receiving little support from the government. Many families complained the relief was distributed only among the extremely poor people, while a number of affected people remained excluded from the relief programme. “Our crops were totally damaged due to the flood but we did not get any relief or support from the government,” said Jahidul Islam, a farmer of Dohogram union under Burimari thana in Lalmonirhat. “The government has provided food relief among the extremely poor people in the char areas and we did not even see any medical team in our village.” The local people claimed that before the Rohingya crisis, a good number of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and personal donors were providing shelters, food, medicine, clothing and cash to the flood victims. Piyara Parveen, a former NGO worker in Jatrapur union under Kurigram Sadar, said different professionals and students were among those who came forward to help. “But the initiatives were interrupted due to the Rohingya crisis which has become more important than the flood victims,” she said. MB Akhter, the interim country director for Oxfam in Bangladesh, said it was “not acceptable” that the flood victims had been pushed down the news agenda by the influx of refugees from Myanmar. “Despite the flood victims’ miserable conditions, it has lost its importance and media attention (as) the government and international donors are more concerned about the Rohingya.” he said. “We have been continuing our support both for the Rohingya and flood victims by splitting our teams into two groups (but) without support, it will be very tough for the flood victims to turn it around until the next harvest.” When contacted, Jatrapur Union Parishad Chairman Ayub Ali Sarker said the relief distribution work had been discontinued in his constituency including the government’s special programme of providing Tk10 per kilogram of rice for the ultra poor people. “The affected people have survived with little support from government and non-governmental organisations but most of these programmes have stopped now. Severe hunger and poverty will emerge if actions are not taken immediately,” the UP chairman said. DDM sources said the authorities had sent necessary relief materials and cash to each affected district, while the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) was closely working with the affected cultivators in flood-hit regions. “The government has taken sufficient steps to ease the flood victims’ sufferings while relief work is still underway according to necessity,” the Director General (DG) Md Reaz Ahmed told the Dhaka Tribune.