About 300,000 flood-affected people of the three upazilas of Kulaura, Juri and Barlekha of Moulvibazar district, adjacent to the country's largest haor Hakaluki, have been grappling with severe food crisis.
Although the flood situation in seven upazilas of the district has improved, the picture is different in haor areas.
Specially in the shoreline areas of Hakaluki haor, the water is not reduced and it is taking the form of prolonged flooding, which is affecting severely flood-hit people of the three upazilas.
Affected people were waiting for the houses and roads submerged in the water to wake up. Just then the opposite picture appears. The water in the river is slowly decreasing and it is taking the form of chronic waterlogging. Even if the water decreases a little during the day or night, water increases again during rain.
The distressed people of various villages along the banks of the flood-hit Hakaluki haor have reported their food shortages.
Besides, classes could not be started in about 38 educational institutions in the haor areas of the district due to flood water, said District Secondary Education Officer Md Fazlur Rahman.
Many residents including Azizul Islam, Rafiq Mia, Karim Mia, and Ayesha Begum of haor areas said with anger that although they have been waiting day and night for relief, they have not received anything except 10 kg of rice in two phases from the government.
People are only getting dry food, biscuits, puffed rice, flattened rice and jaggery under the relief of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and individual initiatives. They are passing their lives eating these dry foods.
No public or private medical team has visited them yet. So they are living with waterborne diseases. They have no income due to floods. So now there is no rice in the house, said the flood-affected residents adding that there is no rice, no food, and no clean water in the affected areas.
There is no sanitation facility. The anxiety of returning home and resettlement haunts the people who had taken shelter in flood centres and others.
Most of their homes are under still waist-to-knee water. Many people in the shelters said that they remained half-starved even on the day of Eid. And those who were at home at that time also spent the night and day in various worries.
The domestic animals of the area are also helpless like them. They are also in dire straits due to a crisis of food and shelter. The suffering of foodless, homeless people and inhumane living is now their daily companion.
The affected people claimed that they were not getting help as expected. The support coming from the government is also not enough. Due to this flood, the distribution of relief by individuals, institutions or various organizations is also less.
Moulvibazar Deputy Commissioner Urmi binte Salam said: "Out of the annual allocation of 1,050 metric tons, 934 metric tons of rice has been distributed to flood-affected people and 39 metric tons have been distributed at various times. There are 116 metric tons of stockpiled relief goods and TK25,000 in cash.”
Out of that, the upazila sub-allocation is Tk712,500 and flood-affected sub-allocation is Tk712,500 which sub-allocation of Tk5 lakh for the purchase of cow food and sub-allocation of Tk5 lakh for the purchase of baby food.
Some 3,500 packets of dry food received from the government and 2,800 packets have been distributed under the upazila administration's management. Clean water is provided at every shelter. Now there is no shortage of fresh water, said the DC.
Already 75,000 pieces of water purification tablets and 2,500 food saline have been supplied, she added.
She also said that 293,369 people were affected by flood in 520 villages in 48 unions in an area of 929 square kilometers. Some 7,468 people and 54 medical teams are working in 126 shelters. The number of cattle in the shelter is 667.
The flood situation is being closely monitored in the entire district, said the DC.
Executive Engineer Javed Iqbal of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB), said that despite the decline of Kushiara, Dhalai and Manu rivers, the water of Juri river is flowing 164 cm above the danger mark. Due to which the flood water is receding slowly in haor area.