Minister Maya says ‘fragile’ dams caused deaths, damage in storm Roanu

The disaster management and relief minister has said breach of “brittle” dams by storm surge has caused losses of lives and properties in cyclone Roanu.

Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury Maya was speaking at the ‘District Disaster Management Meeting’ in Chittagong on Sunday.

Chittagong suffered most casualties and damage in Saturday’s storm.

Maya said the courage of the people in the district, the government’s preparedness, and efforts by the Fire Service, law-enforcing agencies and the ruling party activists could minimise the damage of the storm to a certain degree.

“But fragile dams let the storm surge kill people in the residential areas. So many lives, crops, livestock, farms, houses would not have been lost had the dams been built properly,” he said.

“The damage was not as high as we had feared,” he added.

The minister said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was informed about the preparative steps when she was visiting Bulgaria.

She instructed the officials to be alert so that no-one suffers during the storm.

At least 24 people died in seven districts in the storm, including 12 in Chittagong. Most of them were washed away by storm surge.

It also destroyed a huge number of houses and uprooted trees. Severe power cuts were also reported.

The death toll in Roanu is the highest in any storm in past three years. Cyclone Komen claimed four lives in July last year. In 2013, 12 people died in storm Mahasen.

Chittagong district administration said the storm damaged crops, fishes and livestock worth Tk 1.5 billion in Sandwip, Banshkhali, Anwara and Sitakunda.

More than 250,000 people in these Upazilas have been affected by the flood caused by the storm.

Thousands others have been stranded in flood waters in Cox’s Bazar, Patuakhali, Lakshmipur, Feni, Barguna, Chandpur, Jhalokathi and Bagerhat.

In Sunday’s meeting, Upazila council chairmen of Chittagong demanded direct distribution of relief.

Chittagong Deputy Commissioner Mesbah Uddin said the Upazila administrations had been asked to provide food for those who were yet to return home from cyclone shelters.

Chittagong Water Development Board engineer Bidyut Kumar Saha said together a 60-kilometre stretch of dams in Sandwip, Nwara, Banshkhali and Patia was damaged by the surge.

He said new Development Project Proposals (DPPs) had been sent to the Planning Commission to develop the dams.

Saha said the dams in Chittagong were 6.5 metres high but the waves flowed up to 7.5 metres during the storm.

Housing and Public Works Minister Mosharraf Hossain recommended building the dams in dry season.