For the poor who make their living as day labourers in low-lying remote areas around Jamuna River, monsoon flooding can have harsh consequences.
Prolonged flooding means zero income for these people, who neither have earning resources nor a rainy day fund that would sustain them until the water finally recedes.
But families living in Jamuna chars are getting an additional support this year, thanks to a flood insurance pilot project initiated by Oxfam, the first of its kind in the country.
Pragati Insurance Limited, with whom the families in Sirajganj signed up last year looking to get paid in case of prolonged flooding, has already distributed the payout.
“The company gave me Tk2,800 as compensation because I could not manage to find work for nine days due to flooding at where I live,” said Nazma Khatun, a resident of a char on the Jamuna in Sirajganj.
Under the project, 1,661 families living in Chowhali and Sadar upazilas of Sirajganj signed up for the flood insurance scheme; the insurance premium of Tk1,092 per family was provided by Oxfam.
Of those who signed up, 856 families were identified as flood victims and were paid a total Tk3,529,600 by the insurance company.
To asses the flood damage, the project used a three-scale flood water level for nine days, 21 days and 26 days, which was modelled and verified by Institute of Water Modelling (IWM).
As per the condition, if the flood water stayed nine days above the certain level in the area, each family will get Tk2,800, Tk4,400 for 21 days, and Tk8,000 for 26 days.
Under this condition, this year 148 families of Sadar upazila received Tk2,800 each and 708 families of Chowhali upazila received Tk4,400 each.
“I am happy as I got some money which will be helpful for my family. Such kind of support is really helpful for people like us who actually live hand-to-mouth. But the problem is we do not have the ability to provide premium for insurance,” Nazma told the Dhaka Tribune.
She added that it was unlikely that anybody would sign up to pay the insurance premium if the NGO pulled out of the project.
However, Md Mamunul Hasan, vice president of Pragati Insurance, pointed out that his company was incurring losses under the project. “It is really tough for an insurance company to continue with such kind of financial loss.
“Now we are thinking to increase the rate of the premium for next year from Tk1,092 to Tk1,300 or something else to make our business sustainable,” he added.
“If the government promotes such mechanism across the country, more people will be interested and get confident in the scheme to reduce their risk,” Mamunul said.
Each year, people living beside different rivers become victims of flood. During late monsoon last year, incessant rainfall triggered two repeated floods in the northern districts in August.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension’s Rangpur zone, the two floods ruined 1 lakh hectares of land containing Aman paddy.
