Food shortages threaten more than a million people in the country’s north and north-east after seasonal flooding put vast tracts of the country under water for a fortnight.
Food scarcity is especially acute in the flood affected districts of Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogra and Jamalpur.
Our district correspondents report that food scarcities had resulted from high water levels disrupting transportation networks.
Relief supplies provided by the district administrations to flood affected people were insufficient to meet demand, they added.
Flooding has displaced around 600,000 people in 66 out of 73 unions in Kurigram district.
The union parishad chairman of Jatrapur, Abdul Gafur, said 6,000 families had survived the last two weeks with their homes under water.
“I was allotted just 7 tonnes of rice which I distributed among 700 families. The rest are without food,” he said.
According to the District Relief and Rehabilitation Centre, the district administration has allotted 250 tonnes of food supplies during this period.
With its stocks now exhausted, the centre said it had requested more supplies from the authorities.
Similar reports of food scarcity trickled in from other flooded districts.
Jahangir Alam, Chilmari Sadar union parishad chairman, said 2,500 families in his area had been affected by the floods.
“I have distributed only 8 tonnes of rice among a few families. The rest are suffering from food shortages,” he said.
In Jamalpur, flooding has affected around 200,000 people.
Md Anwar Hossain, deputy commissioner of the district, said: “We have already distributed 229 tonnes of rice and Tk500,000 cash.
“We need more food to support flood victims. We have sent an application for the allotment of more supplies.”
More than 300,000 people in 64 out of 82 unions in Gaibandha have been affected by flooding. Aside from food shortages, a lack of safe drinking water is a major concern for people in the district.
Aminur Rahman, the Ghagoa union parishad chairman, said flooding had contaminated fresh water supplies in the district causing a scarcity of safe drinking water.
Vast areas of agricultural land containing the country’s major cereal crop, the Aman paddy, are under threat in flood affected regions.
The Department of Agriculture Extension estimates that some 250,000 hectares of cropland have already been damaged in the northern and north-eastern regions of the country.
In addition to causing shortages of food and safe drinking water, flooding has ground educational activities to a halt.
“At least 168 government primary schools in the districts have been closed for the last two weeks,” said AKM Amirul Islam, primary education officer of Gaibandha district.
The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) yesterday said the Brahmaputra-Jamuna river system would likely continue to rise for the next 72 hours. The Padma River will likely rise over the next 48 hours.
The FFWC said flooding in parts of Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Bogra and Sirajganj districts in the north and north-west and Sylhet, Sunamganj and Netrokona in the north-east would likely improve.
But it forecasts that the situation in the central districts of Manikganj, Rajbari, Munshiganj and Shariatpur will deteriorate over the next 48 hours. As of yesterday, 23 river stations recorded river flows above the danger level.
