Floods kill 54, displace 5.6 million
Dhaka (AsiaNews) – The monsoon rains that have lashed Bangladesh for the past ten days have killed 54 people, forcing 5.6 million to flee their homes, said Shafiqul Islam, a spokesperson for the Food and Disaster Management Ministry. Among them “160,000 people have been given shelter in 614 flood shelters on high land in northern Bangladesh," he said. The northern parts of the country were in fact spared with most of the damage caused in the central districts. Meanwhile local sources say that people are getting ready for flood waters to peak in the south in two or three days as rivers make their way through India and the central regions towards the sea.
“Worry” in Manikgonj district
Fr Arturo Speziale, PIME missionary in Bangladesh, said that the situation is worrisome in Manikgonj district, near Dhaka, where two great rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, meet.
“On July 29 I went to celebrate mass in the remotest village of Jianpur. When I got there the square in front of the Saint Alberic Elementary school was already flooded. Yesterday a teacher told me that the waters had reached 30 cm (one foot) even in the buildings that are on higher ground compared to the village many huts.”
At present lots of people are without food. A group of volunteers from the mission will travel to the village on Saturday with food for at least 120 families and two boarding schools at St Angela Girls' Home and St Joseph Boys' Home.
“The hardest hit villages of our mission are in Goaria where 30 families, mostly Hindus, live in huts along the river banks,” Father Speziale said. “Some found refuge at a nearby three-storey school; others had to pitch tents near a paved road. In Rahatpur there are 31 families, also Hindu, who lost their small plots. Christian families near Utholi, not far from the mission’s centre, in Dhusor and Aricia have also been affected by the flooding, but hopefully they can stay in their huts.”
What will happen after the emergency is even more worrisome. “When the waters recede food will have to be provided for at least a month. People will suffer from dysentery, fever and rheumatisms and will need treatment. Rebuilding will have to start; huts will have to be repaired, soil removed by the waters will have to be put back, etc.”
International and government aid
Bangladesh’s caretaker government has mobilised thousands of soldiers and civilians involved in rescue operations.
The UK Department for International Development announced it was shipping US$ 2.5 million worth in drugs, clean water, tents and food to the affected areas.
Some 230 rivers form a dense network which flows through Bangladesh. Every year about a fifth of the country is flooded.
Between July and August 2004, the monsoon season killed 700 people and flooded about 38 per cent of the country.
Anyone who wishes to make a financial contribution to Bangladesh flood victims can send money to PIMEdit Onlus, post office giro account No. 39208202.
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15/12/2020 12:45
