When the nation is still grappling with the pre-monsoon heat, it was first in Sylhet, and now in Kurigram, thousands of people have been marooned by flood waters. According to reports on Monday, vegetable croplands and Aman seedbeds were badly damaged due to rains in the six unions of Roumari upazila of the district bordering India. Like the Sylhet floods a few days ago, an onrush of waters coming from the upstream Indian region has submerged the upazila.
Rise in the water level of Brahamaputra and Jinjiram Rivers in India have already damaged the farmers’ vegetable fields in Roumari upazila on the one hand, due to floods the cultivators might be forced to harvest immature paddy to avoid huge loss on the other. Not to mention the sufferings that the poor people are undergoing with whatever small belongings they have. Besides paddies and vegetables, the maize fields have also gone under water.
Through two ways the government can extend help to the floods affected people now. One, the Ministry of Disaster and Relief needs now to provide instant help to the needy poor people with relief materials including cash if possible. Two, local officials of the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) should make field visits to the affected areas immediately to inspect how best they can provide quick help to farmers in their trouble. The agriculture officer of Roumari upazila said that vegetable croplands and Aman seedbeds were badly damaged due to rains. If Aman seedbeds can be prepared again after the damage, then famers can be helped that way also.
However, the ministries of disaster and relief and agriculture must take the Sylhet and Kurigram monsoons as signals of great caution. The far greater dangers from floods are coming. The people of Bangladesh, especially the poor ones, are already struggling to survive by their limited income as prices of all daily necessities have jumped up.
Therefore, food inflation will remain in the coming days. The spectre of the Covid-19 pandemic is apparently going away, but its economic fallout is still with us. Therefore, this year’s floods — there is every indication it will be severe this season — are going to hit Bangladesh hard. To mitigate the sufferings of people beforehand and save agriculture, it is extremely necessary that the nation gets all prepared to face the dangers.
