Govt finds 1,724 still missing

The drinking water crisis deepened in the remote cyclone affected areas, as rescuers in the south-west coast continued to recover dead bodies yesterday with the government reporting at least 1,724 still missing.
The official number of missing people was 2,176 on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the full extent of the region's devastated infrastructure was slowly becoming apparent, with over half a million households ruined, crops on 16.1 lakh hectares of agricultural land worth tens of crores, and over 8,000 educational institutions fully destroyed.
Several sandbar islands (char) were still reporting drinking water shortage yesterday, with islands off the coast of at least two upazilas in Patuakhali Golachipa and Baufal reporting acute water shortage, as reports of diarrhoea were rolling in from the remote areas, with over a dozen in Patuakhali's Char Hair alone.
No unofficial number on the crisis was available, as most relief agencies and NGOs working in the areas were keeping mum.
The Patuakhali district engineer told The Daily Star last night that at least 1,475 tube wells in the district were damaged.
Government sources yesterday said stacks of relief materials were not being delivered as the worst affected had not been fully identified despite the relief operation being in full-swing.
At least 20 lakh government-provided water purification tablets were delivered to Barisal from Dhaka yesterday, while NGOs are also pushing deeper into remote areas to provide clean water, water purification tablets while reconstructing the water supply system.
In Patuakhali's Baufal upazila, four dead bodies were recovered while another 24 were officially announced dead yesterday. Reports were still coming in of dead bodies being recovered from different areas of both the Barisal and Khulna divisions.
The official death toll stood at 2, 982 yesterday up from the previous day's figure of 2,837, which is still lower than the figure of 3, 167 provided by the army, while unofficial numbers are three and sometimes four times higher.
The government yesterday said at least 67.37 lakh people in 15.72 lakh families have been affected by the cyclone, with 3.58 lakh homes destroyed and 8.11 lakh houses partially damaged.
Crops planted on 16.1 lakh hectares of agricultural land have been damaged, with crops on at least 2 lakh hectares completely destroyed. In Patuakhali, crops on 1.32 lakh hectares have been fully damaged, costing the district at least Tk 4.95 crores, while Barguna's loss of crops on 61, 942 hectares cost the district over Tk 1.5 crore.
Nearly 8,235 education institutions have been affected by last Thursday's cyclone, with around 1,355 requiring full renovation, according to government figures. In Patuakhali alone, over a thousand educational institutions have been fully damaged.