State Minister for Disaster Management and Relief Dr Md Enamur Rahman on Sunday said if the ongoing flood will get prolonged in the country, the government has the capacity to deal with the flood situation as it has already taken all-out preparations to do so.
“We’ve adequate relief materials in stock. If the current flood will prolong in the coming days, there is no reason to be panicked…we are ready to face such a flood,” he told a press conference at the secretariat here.
About relief distribution, the state minister said adequate relief materials have been distributed among flood victims. “But, all flood-affected people do not want relief. They want disaster-tolerant infrastructures like roods and embankments. The flood-hit people, who want relief, are poor,” he added.
Enamur said the government has already allocated Taka 4.71 crore and 6,600 metric tonnes of relief materials to help the flood victims cope with flood situation.
Noting that 3,900 bundles of iron sheet would be distributed among the flood victims, he said food grains and dry food items are also being distributed among them.
Highlighting the government’s initiatives to tackle flood situation, the state minister said about 6,053 villages of 28 districts were affected by flood this year. “Flood affects about 6.3 lakh people of about 45,567 families directly,” he added.
He said a total of 75 people died of flood this year across the country and of them, 65 were children. “Crops of 8,200 hectares of land were damaged due to flood, while about 22 domestic animals died. Some 42 educational institutions were totally damaged by flood while 4,897 institutions were affectedly partially. About 1.75 lakh people took shelters in different shelter centres across the country,” he said.
Executive Engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan said now water is flowing above danger level in Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Surma and Kushiara rivers. “If the country will not experience any heavy downpour in the coming days, the flood situation will improve,” he added.
