Managing floods
The relief
and rehabilitation ministry must extend all out
assistance in
reconstructing the
habitats to the
poor people
With the heavy rainfall continuing, the flood situations are worsening in some districts including Kurigram, Lalmonirhat, Bogra and Jamalpur, and the governments ministry of relief and rehabilitation must urgently reach relief materials to the affected areas. According to a report of this newspaper yesterday, the flood affected people are still suffering from shortage of water, cooked food and shelter. And as the floods are likely to continue, their sufferings will be aggravated further.
Thousands of poor people living in the chars and low lying lands are helplessly witnessing their habitats that have already gone under water rotting. The crops fields and cattle are also being destroyed by floods with incessant rains in these districts and the rivers like Dharla, Brahmaputra, Jamuna, etc. overflowing.
In Jamalpur district alone, more than 10,000 people are severely affected by flood waters. Even more worrying is the fact, the flood situation in the northern districts may further worsen because heavy rain upstream may further inundate rivers like Brahmaputra and Jamuna.
However, the governments relevant entities must help the flood affected people during the time of floods and in their aftermath. Once the flood situation improves, the affected people are very likely to suffer from various water-borne and skin diseases due to poor sanitation and spread of germs during the time of floods. Therefore, it is necessary to warn the flood-affected people about their vulnerability to the diseases on the one hand and keeping available adequate doctors and medicines in the health centres of the affected areas on the other hand. Where there is no such public health centre, temporary centres can be established.
As far as the rehabilitation of the affected people is concerned, the relief and rehabilitation ministry must extend all out assistance in reconstructing the habitats to the poor people. There might be many affected people who need both cash and kinds to restart their life and they have to be provided with that, precisely. Many people who lose their habitats in river erosion and floods usually crowd the cities for food and shelter as floating people when they do not receive support for rebuilding their shelters.
For checking exodus of the affected people to the already overcrowded capital, all the people who will lose shelters ought to be rehabilitated in their own locality. These measures are certainly for the aftermath of floods, but it is very urgent now to reach foods, drinking water to the flood affected people, arranging for them temporary shelters.
