The Daily Star, 24 September 2009
Eid-ul-Fitre, the Muslims’ greatest religious festival observed on Monday, failed to bring any cheer to around two lakh flood-affected people in Tala upazila as the agriculture-dependent people lost their standing crops and betel leaf plantations due to the waterlogging since September 5.
Same is the situation of the Hindu community people ahead of the Durga Puja.
The affected people are passing hard days due to acute scarcity of food, drinking water and medicines as rainwater and water from the River Kabodak entering the area cannot recede to the silted river.
With outbreak of diarrhoea, skin diseases and other intestinal diseases, a large number of patients have been admitted to Satkhira Sadar Hospital and Tala Upazila Health Complex.
Unprecedented water logging has also caused extensive damage to roads, bridges, culverts, educational institutions and dwelling houses, especially the thatched and earth-made ones.
Commuters are suffering due to suspension of road communication between Satkhira and Khulna as the road at Noapara on Satkhira-Khulna road in Tala upazila has gone two to four feet under water.
According to the district Relief and Rehabilitation Office (DRRO), about 2 lakh people of about 41,000 families have been affected and crops on several thousands acres of lands have been damaged as all the 12 unions in Tala upazila have been inundated.
A source in the DRR office, however, said they are yet to get the total estimate of losses.
As a group of journalists including this correspondent visited some of the flooded areas yesterday, the affected people said they are passing miserable days as the government is yet to come forward to mitigate their sufferings with relief supplies.
“We are almost fasting for the last two days,” said Sirajul Islam of Kashipur village in Tala upazila.
“Nobody has come to us with food,” Sita Rani Mondal, a flood victim of Raripara village in Kumira union, said.
Scarcity of drinking water is also prevailing there.
Tala Upazila Nirbahi officer Khan Reza-un-Nabi said 3,595 families have become shelterless as their kutcha houses were collapsed and they have taken shelter in makeshift houses beside roads and on high lands.
On contact, Satkhira Deputy Commissioner Md Abdus Samad said he has written to the higher authorities concerned to sanction 500 tonnes of rice and Tk 10 lakh to mitigate sufferings of the affected people.
