Floods wash away 88 tonnes of fish
Fish of 582 ponds were washed away by recent floods in Rangpur while hundreds of houses went under floodwater in char areas of Lalmonirhat.
Floods washed away around 88 tonnes of fish worth Tk 1.85 crore from the ponds in three upazilas of Rangpur, reports our Dinajpur correspondent.
Besides, structures worth Tk 23.11 lakh surrounding the ponds were washed away by the floodwater, said fisheries officials of the district.
The affected upazilas are Gangachhara, Kaunia and Pirgachha. Gangachara was the worst affected area.
In Gangachhara, fish worth Tk 1.36 crore of 495 ponds were washed away by floods. Besides, floodwater washed away structures worth Tk 22.55 lakh surrounding the ponds.
In Kaunia, 4.27 tonnes of fish of 50 ponds were flooded. The market price of the fish was around Tk 7.15 lakh.
In Pirgachha, 6.66 tonnes of fish of 37 ponds in the upazila were washed away by floodwater. The market price of the fish was Tk 7.62 lakh.
Structures of Tk 1.31 lakh were damaged.
Shamiul Islam, a fish farmer of Mohna village in Gangachhara upazila, said floodwater washed away a variety of fish like pabda and rui worth Tk 15 lakhfrom his pond on 50 decimals of land.
Latifur Rahman, deputy director of Rangpur Fisheries Department, said fish production may decline this year as a large number of ponds have been washed away by floodwaters.
According to our Lalmonirhat correspondent, 235 out of 250 homesteads in Sindurna char in the Teesta river bed of Hatibandha upazila.
The rest houses were not inundated. Those were built 4-5 feet height above water level so that flood victims in the area can use the homesteads as safe shelters.
Two months ago, these 15 houses were built under Integrated Communication Development Project (ICDP)-II of Eco-Social Development Organisation, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), funded by PLAN International Bangladesh. Different trees were planted surrounding the homesteads.
Like Sindurna char, there are 1500 families in 12 chars in the river bed of the district, said NGO officials.
A large number of houses in the areas went under floodwater every year.
Floodwaters started to recede in many areas from Sunday, said locals.
Farmer Shamsul Islam of the char area said their houses went under floodwaters for 10 days since July 9, but they did not go to the flood centre like previous years this time as they took shelter at the homesteads.
Rangpur Divisional Manager of PLAN International Bangladesh Asis Kumar Baksi said they could build only 15 houses for ultra-poor people due to insufficient funds.
They will inform the government high officials about the matter, he said.
Meanwhile, over 100 houses and a two-storied government primary school building got flooded as gushing water entered through the breach of flood control dyke at Ketkirhat in Gaibandha’s Fulchhari upazila on Saturday, reports our correspondent.
Locals said as floodwater entered through the breach, a large porting of the dyke collapsed, inundating the houses and Ketkirhat Government Primary School.
Nazimuddin, a farmer of the area, said around 400 students of the institution are facing uncertainty over their education as the school went under floodwater.
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