Heavy floods and incessant downpour have severely damaged properties valued around Tk 300 crore in two upazilas of Naogoan district following the collapse of a flood control embankment at Mirpur area under Atrai upazila in the district. District administration sources said that the month-long floods have damaged about 23,000 houses, including 7,000 mud huts, worth around Tk 50 crore in Atrai and Raninagar upazilas. Around 97 educational institutes have also been damaged in the two upazilas.
The recent floods have destroyed about 80 km of roads and 6.50 km of the flood control embankment.  Haran Charan (30), a resident of Deuwli village in Raninagar upazila, said the floods have rendered him homeless by damaging his four-room mud hut. “I need Tk 2.50 lakh to rebuild the hut,” he added. Like Haran, many others have lost their houses due to the devastating floods in the high land areas of the region.  Md. Monirul Islam, upazila nirbahi officer (UNO) in Raninagar upazila, told The Independent seasonal crops, including Aman paddy, have been heavily damaged by the prolonged floods. The local agricultural extension office roughly estimated that cultivators in the upazilas must count Tk 200 crore as production loss. Cultivator Abudur Rahim of Banagram village in Raninagar upazila lost at least 4,000 kg of Aman paddy due to the floods. “I've lost around Tk 1.80 lakh as the cultivation cost,” he said. Another cultivator, Joglu Sarker of Shoria village in Raninagar upazila, said he has lost crops valued around Tk 1.40 lakh.     Local administration sources said the recent floods have affected around 160,000 people of 32,000 families.