Home ›› 30 Jun 2022 ›› Opinion
Bangladesh is a low-lying land and there are many rivers crisscrossing the country. Moreover, heavy monsoon rain is an integral part of our climate. Almost all of our rivers are sourced from upstream located in our neighbouring countries. Hence, when water flow increases in upstream, the downward flow increases and pressure is felt in our rivers. As the upstream water comes with lots of sand and mud, siltation occurs in our rivers heavily during the monsoon. Moreover, with the melting of Himalayan ice, the water level is increasing in our rivers and sea.
Along with the natural causes, there are several man-made causes of these floods too. Experts say that a number of reasons combined to make the situation worse. In addition to the already flooded three districts– Sylhet, Sunamgonj and Moulvibazar, the districts that may witness flood in the upcoming days are Jamalpur, Bogura, Sherpur, Gaibandha, Sirajganj, Tangail, Manikganj, Pabna, Rajshahi, Kushtia, Faridpur, Rajbari, Shariatpur, Munshiganj, and Chandpur. The Brahmaputra and Jamuna have already been flowing above the danger levels and water level of the Padma River system may rise soon. This year flood may not occur in capital Dhaka but with increasing load of water in the upcoming years, Dhaka will also be affected soon and that will bring extreme chaos to our life and economy. Nearly a million people remain stranded, facing acute shortage of foo and drinking water as the flood situation worsens.
Thousands of people in Sylhet and Sunamganj have become stranded in floods. Although water recedes in places, people are struggling with acute food crisis and drinking water. Even after several days since the flood in Sylhet and Sunamganj, many of the areas of the two districts are still in a precarious condition. Train communication has been restored but some of roads are still submerged. Sunamganj’s road connectivity with the rest of the country is still snapped. Safe shelters for stranded people could not be fully ensured. The local administrations have failed to ensure food and drinking water for all the flood-ravaged people. Services in most of the hospitals and banks are yet to restore fully since they are still to recover fully from the impact the flood.
The water level receded in the Sylhet and Sunamganj districts but the flood situation remains worrying. The locals are still in fear of further deterioration of the situation since the onrush of water from upstream in India continues. Apart from Sylhet and Sunamganj, districts such as Netrokona, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogura, Sirajganj, Jamalpur, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur, Sherpur, Habiganj, Moulvi Bazar and Brahmanbaria have also been flooded recently, according to media reports. At least 73 upazilas of these districts have been more or less flooded. The district administration at a press release said a total of 230,632 people have taken shelter in 497 shelter centres. Also, 31,000 cattle have taken shelter in those centres.
If the humanitarian crisis that unfolded in Sylhet division has made one thing clear, it is the poor state of preparedness of a region prone to floods and a country otherwise renowned for handling flooding. True, the scale and intensity of the ongoing flood itself surprised many, with the state minister for disaster management and relief describing it as a once-in-122-years weather event. But that it caught us totally off guard is a sad reflection on our vaunted capabilities.
The government's failure to translate satellite warnings into early evacuations on the ground, or to deliver emergency relief in cut-off villages on time, should be seen as what it is: a failure. Recently as much as 72 per cent of the entire division, including the hardest-hit Sylhet and Sunamganj districts, went under water following heavy rains in the north-eastern region as well as upstream India's Meghalaya and Assam states.
According to an estimate, some 64 upazilas of 10 districts was affected. Communications remain snapped, power supply has been cut off, and medical services suffered disruptions in most areas. People are struggling to get food, drinking water and shelter. Children and elderly people are said to be particularly at risk. What have been particularly encouraging to see are the citizens-led initiatives to reach emergency relief and medicines to those in need. The priority now is to streamline all such initiatives to make the maximum impact in terms of saving lives and minimising damage.
For that to happen, the government must take the lead. The next few weeks will be crucial, even after floodwater begins to recede, because post-flood recovery can be equally daunting and because it may take some time before all online and offline services as well as communications are restored. We urge the government to place its rescue efforts on a war footing considering the emergency, and do everything necessary to take control of the flood situation as soon as possible. Thousands of people in Bangladesh’s north and north-east are faced with a humanitarian crisis as another flash flood, second in a month, has hit the region, submerging hundreds of villages and a number of cities and towns.
Almost all districts of the Sylhet and the Rangpur divisions were affected by the floods, caused by heavy downpours and an onrush of water from the upstream. Sunamganj is reported to have been most severely affected, with about 80 per cent of the district, including the district headquarters, having been under waist-deep water since June 16. Road communication between Sunamganj and Sylhet and between Sunamganj and other upazila headquarters has been severed as many parts of the highway and local roads went under flood water. According to different estimates, more than a million people have been marooned and they are suffering from a scarcity of food and drinking water. District administrations are reported to have begun distributing relief supplies and rescuing the stranded from difficult-to-reach areas. The government have deployed the army in rescue operations and the distribution of emergency supplies.
What is unacceptable in all this is the government’s poor preparation. The number of people marooned in difficult-to-reach areas would not have been so high if there had been an effective flood forecasting mechanism. A poor flood forecasting system that has routinely failed to predict flood and warn people accordingly has for long been decried, but the authorities have given little attention to the issue. Besides technical inefficiency, the flood forecasting system is reportedly weak because of the arbitrary withholding and release of water at barrages across the border by India.
A shortage of boats and rescue vehicles in affected areas has also made the situation difficult. A region which faces flooding almost every year should have had all modes of rescue in place. While the government has a number of issues such as improving the flood forecasting system and the water-sharing of the trans boundary rivers with India, constructing effective embankments and preserving flood-flow zones to attend to, it must step up rescue and relief operations in the affected areas in earnest.
It must also look into the basic necessities of the people left stranded by the flood and of the people who have taken refuge in flood shelters. The government must ensure food and safe water for all. The authorities must also calculate crop and livelihood losses and help the affected recover their losses. The government must recover canals, waterbeds from illegal grabbers as a priority. We need to recover those to increase our water containment capacity at earliest. The authorities concerned also need to increase waterbeds alongside the rivers throughout the country. We need to use the concept of elevated roads or Bailey Bridge to ensure communication at low-lying areas.
We must ensure water flow by using techniques like; dredging. The government should plant trees alongside the rivers heavily to reduce soil erosion too. Moreover, we need to complete the water sharing agreement with India to secure the future of our citizens. We need to take several steps immediately to reduce the risks of floods as we will not be able to avoid the severity of this natural calamity in the future. Any carelessness today in this regard will make us suffer a great deal as fighting this calamity requires a wide array of actions.
The real economic impact of floods is still unknown. During the last decade, we have significantly developed as a nation under the astute leadership of PM Sheikh Hasina and to sustain that progress, we need to minimize the damage from natural calamities like floods.
From upstream, water is flowing freely into our country, monsoon rain is adding significant amount of water and the sea level is rising simultaneously. Hence, it is important to manage water to reduce floods and damages. The seawater will be of no use, but if managed properly the upstream water and rain water can be used for irrigation. We will need to create several reservoir water basins and that will require well planned strategies.
The writer is a researcher based in the UK. He can be contacted at [email protected]
