FLOODING, especially in the north and north-east, is turning bad with a rapid increase in river heights, leaving thousands marooned, waiting to be rescued to flood shelters. In some places, people are waiting to be rescued even from flood shelters to places that are safe as the shelters rapidly went under water, as high as the height of fully grown humans. The situation is feared to be worsening over the next few days with forecasts suggesting that more areas down to the centre could be submerged as rivers at many points were flowing above the danger mark amidst the torrential monsoon rain. Apart from people already in distress in the Sylhet region, the life and the living of people in five northern districts of Rangpur, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat and Nilphamari, through which the River Teesta flows, have already been severely constrained. Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre bulletins warn that flooding along the Brahmaputra and the Jamuna, especially in Jamalpur, Bogura, Tangai and Sirajganj, might worsen soon. The River Padma could also flow above the danger mark soon. Forecasts that rivers in the north and the north-west could also swell rapidly entail further danger, with the Met Office having forecast further rainfall across the country.
The situation warrants that the government should step up its efforts on a number of fronts to mitigate the sufferings of flood-affected people. The foremost of the tasks is to rescue the affected to safe places and to reach them relief supplies to head off any immediate danger. The divisional commissioner of Rangpur says that about 45,000 people are now living on boats in the area as they could not yet be moved to safety. The relief supplies such as food, drinking water and medicines to the affected people are reported far from adequate. The Rangpur divisional commissioner seeks to vent out the helplessness in saying what he is left with to do but to inform people of the risks and dangers during natural disasters. Such an attitude, if it is collective, would spell disaster as the government, rather, needs to step up efforts to help the people in distress with what they need in the short run. The government should also have plans ready for the mid-run relief work such as providing medical treatment as diseases might break out as the floodwater would begin to recede. The government, meanwhile, should also work out its long-term plans such as rebuilding, as a large number of houses have been either damaged or destroyed, education, as a number of schools have been closed to be used as shelters, and farming, as crops on a vast expanse have already been lost.
Yet in the longer run, the government needs to attend to some infrastructural policy issues that are often blamed for flooding in the north-east and some strategic issues left unresolved with India, where a sudden opening of floodgates on the rivers upstream often causes flooding, especially in Bangladesh鈥檚 north. But, the government must, first, act on its priority of helping the people now in distress.
