Floodwater caused by six straight days of very heavy rain upstream of the Sangu and Matamuhuri rivers in Bandarban has slowly begun to recede. But thousands of families in the district are still marooned. Farmers have been hit hardest, and roads, bridges and agriculture have suffered losses worth crores of taka.

Visits to various areas from the morning of 12 July showed the water going down. Local people were seen catching fish, and many were clearing mud from flooded homes and businesses as they tried to return to normal life. But with water still in thousands of homes in low-lying areas, the hardship is not over. The district administration and various political and social organisations are continuing to distribute relief in the affected areas.

According to the district administration, 2 municipalities and 29 unions in the district have been flooded to some extent. The worst damage is in several unions of Bandarban Sadar, Lama and Alikadam upazilas and in the Lama and Bandarban municipalities. The district had 2,020 shelters ready, of which 54 took in more than 4,600 people.

Sanatan Kumar Mondal, officer in charge at the Bandarban meteorological office, said 62 mm of rain was recorded in the 24 hours from 3pm on Saturday to 3pm on Sunday, which counts as heavy rainfall.

The flood has also badly damaged road communications in the district.

Md Sakhawat Hossain, executive engineer of the Bandarban Roads and Highways Department, said about 55 km of road, three RCC bridges and seven Bailey bridges under the department had been damaged, with initial losses of about Tk 47 crore.

He said that if the weather is favourable and there is no heavy rain, it could take at least seven days to reopen the damaged Bailey bridge at Dudhpukuria Bridgeghata on the Bandarban-Rangamati road.

Pratipad Dewan, executive engineer of the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) in Bandarban, said 21 km of LGED roads and 14 bridges and culverts had been damaged. Repairing them will need about Tk 36 crore, including about Tk 26 crore for roads and about Tk 11 crore for bridges and culverts.

Farmers have suffered the biggest losses in this flood. Agriculturist Abu Naim Mohammad Saifuddin, deputy director of the DAE in Bandarban, said crops and fruit orchards on about 1,481 hectares of farmland in the district had been damaged. They include Aman and Aus rice, seedbeds, various vegetables, and ginger, turmeric and papaya plantations.

He said that once the water has fully receded, field inspections will be carried out to calculate the final losses and a report will be sent to higher authorities. But it can already be said that the flood has done extensive damage to Bandarban's agriculture, he said.

Source: Jagonews24. First published in Bengali on The Agro News.