Flood in north persists

The flood situation in the north and central part of the country did not improve on Monday while farmers expressed their worries as the croplands and fisheries farms and ponds remained under water for over the past two weeks.
The affected farmers said that their transplanted Aman and other varieties of paddy as well as standing vegetable plants had rotten.
They said that they depended on the produces of Aman and other vegetables to pass their days until boro harvesting and they would endure a total loss because of the flooding.
As a result, they will have to fall in huge debt to pass their days and education of their children, they said.
“I am frustrated that I will not be able to recover my losses in the next couple of years…All my five ponds have washed away and I will face a loss of about Tk 25 lakh,’ Lalin Miah, 46, of Botla village under Rajarhat upazila in Kurigram said.
Aklima Khatun, 38, a villager of Noonkhawa under Nageswari upazila in the district said that she was worried about her family’s future as all vegetable farms and paddy were under water for over two weeks and already had died.
The flood forecasting and warning centre of Water Development Board on Monday morning forecasted that the overall flood situation at places in north, central, north-western and north-eastern parts including Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Bogra, Sirajganj, Sylhet, Sumanganj, Netrokona, Manikganj, Rajbari, Munshiganj and Shariatpur districts might improve by Thursday morning.
The centre data showed that water had been flowing above danger levels at 22 river stations in the country.
Crops on 82,000 hectors of land have been damaged in eight districts of Rangpur division because of recent flood and heavy rain, said officials of Department of Agricultural Extension in Rangpur division, adding that about 79,787 hectares of them were Aman cropland and 2,398 hectares vegetable croplands.
New Age correspondent in Gaibandha reported that besides damaging standing crops of T-Aman paddy, Aman seed bed, summer vegetable and banana on 39,800 hectares of land in the district and the carp fishes of 7,100 ponds were washed away in the ongoing flood.
District fisheries officer Md Abdul Latif said that total loss in fisheries sector in the district was estimated at Tk 41.35 crore.
‘I lead my life on the crops I get from two bighas of land and selling fish from my pond, but all of them are now under water,’ said Md Sarwar, an affected farmer in Sundarganj in Gaibandha.
New Age correspondent in Jamalpur reported that flood situation remained unchanged in the district where over 2.50 lakh people remained marooned.

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