Rehabilitation main challenge

Nurjahan Begum along with her husband Mozammel Hossain, a poor farmer of Boro Moharajpur village in Shahzadpur upazila of Sirajganj, left her flooded home on August 14.

After staying on a flood protection embankment for several days, they returned home on August 27, but the receding floodwater had already eroded the soil from the floor, turning the house risky for living.

“We do not have the ability to repair the damaged house. We have to live here amid the threat of snakebite. Our Aman paddy on one bigha of land was also washed away by floodwater,” Nurjahan, 40, said during this correspondent's visit there a couple of days ago.

Bahadur Mondol, 50, a van puller hailing from Jamitri Dakkhinpara village of Shahzadpur, could not restore his house that collapsed due to the strong current of floodwater a couple of weeks ago.

Bahadur, also a diabetic patient, could not manage proper foods, let alone insulin, during last couple of weeks.

“Now I cannot drive van for carrying passengers and goods as the flood damaged the village roads,” Bahadur said.

Like Nurjahan and Bahadur, around four lakh flood victims in six upazilas of Sirajganj district face crises after the receding of floodwater. Floodwater washed away belongings of 93,334 flood hit families in six upazilas of the district.

According to the district relief and rehabilitation office, a total of 5,548 houses were totally destroyed while 34,053 others partly damaged in six upazilas of the district as flood hit the areas early August and then again in mid-August.

“We have got the list of flood damaged houses and an estimated Tk 101.94 crore rehabilitation fund is required for repairing the damaged houses. We have already submitted the report to the ministry concerned  but the fund is yet to be sanctioned,” said Md Abdur Rahim, Sirajganj district relief and rehabilitation officer.

The floods caused extensive damage to roads and culverts, disrupting communication in 391villages of the six upazilas.

“A total of 386 km roads out of 1162 kilometre concrete roads have been  damaged due to the floods in Sirajganj in last few weeks. We have estimated the loss to be of Tk 113 crore,” said Nure Alam Siddique, senior assistant engineer of LGED.

“Besides, 21 culverts were totally damaged, causing loss worth Tk 8.28 crore. The LGED has already submitted a letter for a Tk 122 crore rehabilitation fund to the ministry concerned that has allotted Tk 25 crore for urgent repair works,” he added.

The agriculture sector also suffered huge losses due to the floods.

“A total of 52,592 hectares of land was brought under Aman cultivation with the target to produce 1.5 lakh tonnes of rice. But the two times flood washed away paddy on 22,259 hectares of land, hampering production of 66 thousand tonnes of rice,” said Md Arshed Ali, deputy director of Sirajganj DAE.

“Production worth Tk 175 crore has been damaged due to the floods in August. We need Tk 9 crore for the immediate rehabilitation for the flood victim farmers so that they can restart cultivation. The DAE has already prepared new seedlings for flood victim farmers of the district,” he said.

Although the district administration and different departments prepared lists of flood damage in Sirajganj, the rehabilitation programme is being delayed due to unavailability of funds, officials said. 

“We have estimated the flood loss of Tk 369 crore and sought immediate allotment of a Tk 101 crore rehabilitation fund to the ministry. Different departments submitted separate reports to the ministries concerned for rehabilitation funds but the funds have been allocated yet,” the DRRO said.

However, regular relief programmes are continuing for the flood victims, he added.