Fish farmers in 13 out of 15 upazilas of Chattogram have incurred a loss of around Tk 70 crores caused by the recent flood in the district.
The Directorate of District Fisheries shared this information about the extent of losses through investigation after the flood water receded.
However, there was no remarkable loss in the fish sector in Sitakunda and Fatikchhari upazilas.
Md Mahbubur Rahman, survey officer of the district fisheries office, said the extent of loss caused by the flood was estimated at Tk 70 crore in the district.
A total of 4, 154 tonnes of fishes were washed away from 13, 379 ponds and 126 fish enclosures in the district during the flood district, he said, adding that an amount of Tk 69.38 crore were incurred in losses.
People of the district experienced an unprecedented flood from August 1 to 4 this month and the city dwellers were stranded in water for four days since August 7.
The four upazilas badly hit by the flood are Satkania, Lohagara, Patiya and Chandanaish. Losses worth Tk 35 crores were incurred as fish was cultivated in 10,000 ponds of the upazilas.
Md Hasan Ahsanul Kabir, fisheries officer of Satkania upazila, said around 6,000 fish projects were washed away in the flood in Chandanaish, Satkania and Lohagara upazilas which caused a loss of Tk 25 crore.
It will take time to recover the loss even though the flood water started to recede, he said.
Patiya upazila's Assistant Fisheries Officer Sujat Kumar Chowdhury said 4,000 fish out of 8,000 ponds in the upazila were washed away causing the loss of Tk 10 crores.
Mohammad Hasan Ahsanul Kabir, fisheries officer of Chandanish upazila said they estimated that fish from 2,537 water bodies were washed away in the upazila and it caused a loss worth Tk 12 crores.
Besides fish being washed away, agricultural farms were damaged in the flood as well.
A young entrepreneur from Chandanish Md Harun said around 1000 chickens from his poultry farm died in the flood and his vegetable fields were also damaged.
Fish farmers of the flood-affected upazilas urged the government to extend their support to recover the loss; otherwise, it won't be possible to make ends meet.
