Tapos Kanti Das . Khulna and Nikhil Chatterjee . Patuakhali
NewAge, June 6, 2009
The number of makeshift shanties on both sides of the highways in southwest was increasing everyday with most part of the region still remaining inundated 11 days after the tidal surge associated with cyclone Aila on May 25.
In southern Patuakhali, people were struggling to cope with the flood water twice a day as the damaged embankments were yet to be repaired. The croplands and yards of their houses go under water during high tides and often water enters into their houses.
People who have taken shelter on both sides of Paikgachha-Koyra Road in Khulna said most of them lost the homesteads and took refuge in the shanties to draw attention of relief workers as no relief reached the remote villages.
More than 1.5 lakh people in six unions in Koyra have become homeless and almost every family in the area has been badly affected by the tidal surge, said the upazila administration.
Flood control embankment stretching more than four kilometres around four villages of Kalapara in Patuakhali was completely washed away on May 25, which caused regular inundation of 17 villages.
About 80 per cent dwelling houses in the villages face inundation twice a day as saline water submerges the villages during high tides.
Md Julfikar Ali of village Kalna of Koyra made his shanty beside the road collecting palm and coconut leaves, broken branches of trees and discarded plastic sheets and cartons. ‘I have lost everything including two cottages, two cows and seven poultry birds and now living in the shanty,’ he said.
‘People in the inundated villages need relief most, but the relief workers distribute it among the people staying in the roadside shanties and at the upazila headquarters,’ said Shamshur Rahman, chairman of Dakhkhin Bedkashi union council.
Sheraj Uddin Mridha, a farmer of Nawapara at Kalapara in Patuakhali, said if the flood-protection dams were not repaired, it will not be possible to cultivate paddy during the current aman season
