Flood affects 37 lakh in 19 districts

An estimated 37 lakh people have been affected in floods in as many as 19 districts in the country and at least 10 lakh of them are now in need of immediate assistance.

The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) stated this in a report released on Monday.

The UN OCHA has identified five districts -- Jamalpur, Kurigram, Sirajganj, Tangail and Gaibandha -- as the worst hit districts.

It has given an estimate that at least 10 lakh people are in need of immediate assistance and a multisector rapid analysis identified water, sanitation and food as immediate needs.

The OCHA, headed by an under secretary-general, is the part of the United Nations Secretariat responsible for bringing together humanitarian actors to ensure a coherent response to emergencies. It also ensures there is a framework within which each actor can contribute to the overall response effort.

It expressed particular concern for Jamalpur, Kurigram and Gaibandha as these are the first affected districts with 30 percent of the population living below the lower poverty line.

Without mentioning any districts specifically, the report said there are some districts where no immediate humanitarian responses have yet been made by any international aid agencies.

The OCHA reported damage or destruction of as many as 250,000 houses across the country in the current deluge stalking the affected areas since mid-July.

The report stated that the Bangladesh government has allocated 10,060 tonnes of rice to 19 affected districts as well as Tk 4.29 crore in cash and dry food worth Tk 2.8 crore to the affected population.

In a report published on August 11, the Brussels-based European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) has meanwhile stated that 37 lakh people have been affected by floods in Bangladesh and more than 40,000 of them have been displaced as over 280,000 houses have been either fully or partially damaged.

The ECHO said some 106 people have drowned and 10 others have been killed by snakebites in the wake of flooding.

Like the OCHA, the ECHO has also identified Jamalpur, Kurigram, Sirajganj, Tangail and Gaibandha as the worst affected districts. These districts have been the longest affected and correspond to more than 70 percent of the affected population, said the ECHO.

An ECHO mission is currently underway to further assess the situation on the ground.

There has been no picture of flood-induced crop damage in either of the OCHA or ECHO reports.

However, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) has preliminarily estimated that more than 1.25 lakh hectares of cropland went under floodwater this year and crops, mainly paddy, of around 20,000 hectares of land were completely damaged.

The agriculture ministry has plans to provide farmers with Aman saplings as flood-water recedes from their croplands.

The government would provide paddy saplings to the flood-affected farmers, as many seedbeds have been washed away by floodwater, Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury said.

“Farmers would not be able to plant paddy saplings if floodwaters submerge their land. The government will try its best to supply paddy saplings to the flood-hit farmers and different government agencies, such as BADC [Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation] have been prepared for this,” she added.