Flood victims are horribly at risk of Covid infection, but no arrangement seen yet
AS thousands of flood-affected people gathered on embankments or at shelter centres without having access to sanitation and safe drinking water, a humanitarian crisis have spelled out in the flood affected areas. Amid the situation of total negligence from the government, the flood-hit people are living under the open sky on a handful of dried food. Water-borne diseases, respiratory health problems, and Covid-19 infection are quickly spreading in the shelters, where maintaining social distance, hygiene and hand washing are many of the challenges. In the worse flood affected 17 districts, diarrhoea patients jumped to 1216 from just 236 and respiratory tract patients jumped to 281 from 21 in a week. Physicians are unwilling to go to work among flood victims because of the fear of Covid-19.
In the flood-affected areas, dozens of people are sharing the same toilet, which is just a place of open area for defecation only covered with polythene sheets, on the embankment or at shelters with no sanitary arrangement there. The Public Health Engineering Department was supposed to build enough toilets and make drinking water available for flood victims. But in the Covid time as there lack proper instruction and monitoring, people have been ultimately suffering.
Rangpur division is the worst flood-hit area where over 6 lakh of the total 14.56 lakh flood-hit people live in eight districts. The government estimate shows that 28,544 people sought refuge on embankments while 31,920 were at shelters opened at educational institutions in the districts until Wednesday. The health condition of those stranded remained largely unknown with road communications cut off with them and many of them lack access to travel miles of flooded land to seek healthcare. Water Development Board said that 621 houses were devoured by rivers in the eight flood-affected northern districts between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Affected people claimed that they warned the authority of ensuing erosion before the flood but no help arrived then. The flood outlook said that rivers may recede slightly between Friday and Sunday but would rapidly rise again to cause flooding in the Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Meghna basin. The government, if it is for the people, cannot ignore its responsibility to arrange shelters, relief, freshwater, basic healthcare, and maintain health regulations as well as sustainably solve the ground causes of flood.
In the flood-affected areas, dozens of people are sharing the same toilet, which is just a place of open area for defecation only covered with polythene sheets, on the embankment or at shelters with no sanitary arrangement there. The Public Health Engineering Department was supposed to build enough toilets and make drinking water available for flood victims. But in the Covid time as there lack proper instruction and monitoring, people have been ultimately suffering.
Rangpur division is the worst flood-hit area where over 6 lakh of the total 14.56 lakh flood-hit people live in eight districts. The government estimate shows that 28,544 people sought refuge on embankments while 31,920 were at shelters opened at educational institutions in the districts until Wednesday. The health condition of those stranded remained largely unknown with road communications cut off with them and many of them lack access to travel miles of flooded land to seek healthcare. Water Development Board said that 621 houses were devoured by rivers in the eight flood-affected northern districts between Tuesday and Wednesday.
Affected people claimed that they warned the authority of ensuing erosion before the flood but no help arrived then. The flood outlook said that rivers may recede slightly between Friday and Sunday but would rapidly rise again to cause flooding in the Brahmaputra, Ganges, and Meghna basin. The government, if it is for the people, cannot ignore its responsibility to arrange shelters, relief, freshwater, basic healthcare, and maintain health regulations as well as sustainably solve the ground causes of flood.
