UNB :
Up to 2.5 lakh flood-hit people in Cox’s Bazar district are facing shortage of food and drinking water even if the district administration and public representatives are reaching relief to the affected areas.
The floods, caused by four days of incessant rains, left 21 people dead and caused extensive damage to crops and roads across 51 unions in Ramu, Cox’s Bazr Sadar, Teknaf and Ukhiya upazilas of the coastal district.
The administration said it will assess the extent of the damages as flood waters began receding on Saturday. The affected people, meanwhile, have reported scarcity of pure drinking water and shortage of food.
According to the district administration, Of the 71 unions and four municipalities in the district 51 unions and 525 villages of a municipality got flooded.
Administrative authorities and local representatives are trying their best to help the flood affected people by providing, drinking water, cooked and dried food and other relief.
Deputy Commissioner of the district Md Mamunur Rashid said 300 MT rice and Tk 20 lakh has been allocated by the government for the flood affected people.
The allocation will be increased in phases, he said.
Primary estimate of loss from the flood is worth Tk 32 crore , said the authorities.
Once the flood waters recede the actual picture of damage will be known and the damaged health services, roads, agriculture, fisheries, salt and protective dams will be restored, said DC Mamunur Rashid.
Already 2,000 packets of dried food and Tk 15 lakh have been distributed among flood-affected people, he said.
Reuters adds: Heavy monsoon rains triggered landslides and flash floods in refugees camps displacing thousands of Rohingya Muslims in southeastern Bangladesh this week, UN and other officials said on Friday, with further heavy rainfall expected. At least six Rohingyas, including three children, died in landslides and flooding while 15 Bangladeshis were killed and more than 200,000 stranded by flooding in Cox’s Bazar, said Mamunur Rashid, the district administrator.
Nearly one million Rohingyas live in crowded camps in the border district of Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement, after fleeing a military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017.
The refugees mostly live in shacks made of bamboo and plastic sheets that cling to steep, bare hills. TV footage showed flooded homes and muddy water cascading down steps and hillsides. Children played in chest-high waters.
“This is like a nightmare,” said Rohingya Rokeya Begum. “I have never seen such flooding in the camps in four years. When the water came, there was nobody from my family at home to help. I was alone but I could take my belongings to a safer place. Now I am staying with another family.”
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said more than 21,000 refugees had been “affected” by the flooding while nearly 4,000 shelters had been damaged or destroyed.
It said more than 13,000 were forced to relocate in the camps, while thousands of facilities were damaged, including health clinics and toilets. Access has been hindered due to damage to roads, pathways and bridges.
And the flooding is likely to get worse.
“Heavy rainfall is expected during the next few days, and as such, challenges are likely to increase,” said Manuel Marques Pereira, Deputy Chief of Mission in Bangladesh for the UN’s International Organization for Migration.
Refugees, many of them still recovering from massive fires that tore through the camps in March, said landslides and floods left homes “totally covered with mud”.
“Somehow my family members could evacuate,” said Abu Siddique, who lives in the Balukhali refugee camp. “The mud that came down from the hill entered my home… All of our belongings inside are covered in mud.”
