It is no surprise that annual monsoon floods in Bangladesh lead to a great deal of land erosion and consequent loss of infrastructure, lives, and property -- this has been going on for years on end.
Despite this being a yearly occurrence, once more, communications have broken down due to flooding, this time between Dewanganj Sadar and at least 20 villages, as around 200 metres of a road were washed away by flood water.
Locals have mentioned that a similar problem had struck the area around the same time last year, but no effective measures beyond building a temporary guard wall were implemented in the time since.
As we have previously editorialized, our country’s topography makes certain regions particularly susceptible to monsoon flooding, and without ample preventive measures, it will be next to impossible to reduce the human suffering caused by it. It is disappointing, then, that despite this being a problem that could have been anticipated months ago and therefore wholly preventable, no concrete measure was taken to mitigate the dam-ages caused.
This sort of negligence from the authorities concerned is unacceptable, and they must do everything in their power to make sure such disastrous outcomes are prevented from recurring.
The measures taken cannot be flimsy or half-hearted either, leading to temporary relief and little protection when the floods roll in again the next time around -- a resilient, sustainable course of action must be planned and properly implemented if we are to avert these crises each year.