Floods lay bare emergency disaster response lapses

On an average, half a dozen people, mostly children, drowned or died of snake bites every day in the first 18 days of flood across the country before it reached its peak engulfing a third of the country after July 10.

The number of deaths due to floods was put at 108 by the Health Emergency Operation Centre and Control Room until July 28. Ten of the victims died of snake bites.

Although the disaster management and relief secretary Shah Kamal found the death figure rather low compared to that of the neighbouring flood affected countries, flood victims strongly differ in this regard.

‘Human lives are not expendable. A lot of care goes into a life as it is born and grows,’ Korban Ali, the father of Sadia, the 11-year-old girl who drowned in Lalmonirhat on July 24, told New Age correspondent in Lalmonirhat.

No one was there to prevent Sadia from walking into her house being devoured by the Teesta as she tried to save some of her poor family’s belongings on that fateful day.

The little girl did not have any idea that all sluice gates at the Teesta Barrage had just been opened and the river was swelling and flowing with all its strength.

Sadia and her homestead vanished into the Teesta at the blink of an eye at Gobordhon village in Aditmari upazila.

Korban descended into a daze, it was his neighbours who called the local representatives, fire service and even the police station for help.

Help never came from the authorities.

Three hours later a fisherman found Sadia floating 10 kms away from her home, in another upazila, Sadar upazila.

‘The truth is that we are helpless. Nobody is here to assist us. Everything else is a lie,’ said Korban.

A week before Sadia died, the Teesta washed away a fisherman named Abdul Kuddus at Goddimari in Hatibandha upazila.

Eight hours later his body was found floating 10 kms from where he had been washed away, in another upazila, Kaliganj.

Families repeated requests to search for Kuddus to authorities immediately after the incident were went unheeded.

Lalmonirhat fire service deputy director Ashraf Hossain said that they tried to help people but did not tell how many search and rescue operation did they run in the worst-hit flood affected district. 

The 35-year-old youth Mamun was washed away by floodwater as the Dharla overflowed on July 24 at Kaliganj in Nageshwari upazila. He was fetching medicine for his ailing father from the upazila headquarters.

Mamun had no idea that the road that he treaded easily a few hours ago became unusable because of a sudden increase in the water level in the Dharla.

Somebody heard Mamun scream but it was already dark and fire service rescuers were not equipped enough to conduct a search and rescue operation after dark.

Mamun’s body turned black by the time it was recovered the next morning.

Reports of drowning incidents were covered by the media throughout the time of flood, but they hardly mentioned about the inadequacy of the search and rescue attempts. In almost all the cases, the body of the victim was recovered by the locals.

The volunteers that the disaster management and relief ministry claimed to have trained down to the village level were not seen in action.

‘Rescuing people in a dangerous flood situation is no task for an amateur,’ said Abdul Baten, chairman, Shaheber Alga union parishad, Ulipur.

‘It needs well equipped, well trained professionals to respond to distress calls, which fire service and other institutions seriously lack,’ said Baten. 

The disaster management and relief secretary Shah Kamal said that every upazila in the flood-prone districts has one boat for conducting search and rescue.

He said that the boat could accommodate two to three families with their household belongings.

‘Bangladesh is a role model for disaster management in the world. Our people know it well how to survive,’ said Kamal.

In Kurigram, floods marooned a million people this year.

In Jamalpur, floods marooned 1,283,790 people, more than half of its population, according to government estimates.

Floods marooned 597,497 people in Gaibandha, almost a fourth of its population.

There was no boat in Jamalpur district until the disaster management and relief ministry bought them a total of seven boats during this flood. 

The thousands who lived in remote shoals, which are hours away from the mainland even if one travelled by engine-powered boats, remained under-reported in the media and government estimates.

The government estimated that at least eight people died of snake bite since July 10.

Many of the flood affected districts did not have supplies of anti-venom for treating snake bite patient.

Kurigram civil surgeon SM Aminul Islam admitted during the 2nd week of floods that they did not have the capacity to treat snake bite patients.

He had also said that they did not have any boat to travel to about 300 shoals in the district where thousands were marooned and facing threats from many waterborne diseases.

Amin said that they sought help from NGOs to run medical camp in some areas.

Medical camps remained inaccessible to thousands of people in remote rural areas cut off from road communications. The medical teams do not have boats to access the areas and were operating mainly from nearby towns, reported New Age correspondents in Tangail, Lalmonirhat and Kurigram.

Medicines supplied from the camps are also inadequate to treat patients suffering from critical diseases such as respiratory tract infection that requires administration of antibiotics.

Civil surgeon in different districts said that they had supplies of medicines only to treat pain, fever and cold.

So far 19,030 people fell sick in the flood affected districts due to waterborne and other diseases. Of them, 6,041 suffered from diseases that were not caused by water but aggravated because of the lack of treatment due to flooding.

The Health Emergency Operation Centre and Control Room said that the absence of emergency facilities for carrying these patients to the hospitals was mainly responsible for their deteriorating health condition.   

The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre bulletin on Friday showed that for the first time since July 10, no river was flowing above the danger level.

Major rivers in the country might continue to recede over the next 72 hours, said the FFWC.

The FFWC recorded country’s highest rainfall of 40 mms in 24 hours until 9:00am Friday at Kanaighat.

The Met Office said that monsoon was fairly active over Bangladesh and predicted rains at places over Khulna, Barishal, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions.

The Indian Met Office predicted widespread to fairly widespread rains in Assam and Meghalaya and West Bengal and Sikkim until Monday.

Triggered by heavy rains, floods marooned more than six millions since July 10. Many areas are still under water. People are still in government shelters at Gaibandha, Bogura, Tangail, Jamalpur and Faridpur districts.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net