Kurigram flood victims now suffer relief supply crunch

Residents of Kurigram's flood-hit areas, suffering from acute shortage of food, drinking water, and fuel oil, say the government relief is too little to meet the demand.

Hundreds of thousands of flood victims are thronging residents of local public representatives for relief materials only to be turned away.

Around 353 square kilometres of 53 Union Parishads in the district have been inundated, Kurigram's relief department official Magistrate Mizanur Rahman said.

Flooding of 236 villages has affected at least 109,000 people while river erosion has rendered homeless 2,311 families.

Brahmaputra River's water was flowing 1cm above the danger level on Saturday. Water level of Dudhkumar and Teesta has come down, said Water Development Board's Executive Engineer Abu Taher.

Crops of 18,000 hectares of land have been damaged, according to the agricultural department.

The local administration formed 85 medical teams to tackle water-borne diseases from spreading.

Kurigram Deputy Commissioner ABM Azad said the government had allocated 300 metric tonnes of rice and Tk 400,000 in cash for the flood victims -- more than half of them already distributed.

He said they have asked for another 200 metric tonnes of rice and Tk 2 million on an emergency basis.

Jhunkar Char residents say 227 families have been marooned for seven days now. They are starving as most of the residents are day labourers.

A bdnews24.com tour revealed many families were cooking once in three days. As the tube wells were underwater, many were drinking contaminated waters raising the risk of health hazards.

Jatrapur Union's Ward No. 4 member 'Ershadul' said 580 families in his locality had been hit hard by floods. Of them, 98 families have lost everything to river erosion.

"The government allocation is insufficient," said Ward No. 8 member ‘Anowar’.

He said the victims were angry at them for failing to provide adequate relief.

The gravity of the situation was aptly captured by Jatrapur Union's Chairman Abdul Gafur.

"I'm under lots of pressure," he said. "I am having to live my life like a 'fugitive' from people.

"Everywhere I go, the flood victims surround me for relief supplies.

"Four thousand families have been affected by the flood but we got relief for only 400 families," he said.