Flood victims face shortage of food, drinking water at shelter centres

Flood victims in Sylhet are going through immense suffering due to a shortage of food and pure drinking water in shelter centres.

“We have neither any food nor have received any relief at the shelter centre,” said Terab Bibi, a resident of Chararpar of Sylhet city who has taken shelter at Ramkrishna Primary School in the Chalibandar area amid the worsening flood situation.

“I failed to provide any food to my children as no relief materials have reached the shelter yet. I gave some puffed rice to my children. How can I stay here?” questioned the 35-year-old woman.

Floods are ravaging the country and vast areas starting from Sylhet-Sunamganj to northern Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, and Kurigram have been submerged by floodwaters, reports UNB.

As rains ceased, floodwater started to recede in some flood-hit areas on Sunday. However, many rivers are still flowing above the danger level.

Power supply has partially restored in some areas of Sylhet city after eight hours of disruption around 8:00 pm on Saturday, said Abdul Kadir, chief engineer of the power development board’s Sylhet unit.

The power supply to Sylhet was suspended Saturday afternoon as flood water entered the Kumargaon Power Grid substation.

The power supply was restored in a number of areas in the city including Jindabazar, Chouhatta, Ambarkhana, Bandarbazar, Nayasarak, Naiurpool, Shahi Eidgah, Tilagarh, Baluchar and Mirer Dokan on Sunday.

Many people have taken shelter in the houses of their relatives while many people in government declared shelter homes.

Ruhul Alam, executive engineer of Sylhet City Corporation (in charge of shelter homes), said at least 30 shelter homes were opened in the city. But it is difficult to know how many people are residing there.

“Already 30 metric tonnes of rice have been allocated but we failed to distribute these at the shelter homes due to incessant rainfalls,” he said.

During a recent visit to different shelter homes in Sylhet city, this correspondent found that an acute shortage of food and pure drinking water has intensified the sufferings of the people who have taken shelter in many primary schools and other educational institutions.

A large number of people are still waiting at their respective houses as they failed to arrange any transport to reach the shelter homes or other safer places.

Nitesh Sarkar, a resident of the Sylhet suburb area, said all shops were closed and there is no way to go to other places as the roads were submerged by floodwater.

Shamsuddin Ahmed, a resident of the Fatehpur area in Goainghat Upazila of the district said they are suffering from pure drinking water as the only tube well of his house was submerged by floodwater.

During a visit to different parts of the Sylhet city including Subidbazar, Sobhanighat and Dakkhin Surma Station Road, the correspondent learnt that the roads, shops and dwelling houses were submerged by the floodwater and people were wading through knee-to waist-deep water.

Besides, the prices of daily essentials have shot up in the kitchen markets.

The unprecedented flooding inundated 80 per cent of the territory in Sylhet district, and 90 per cent area of Sunamganj, according to Flood Forecast and Warning Centre.

The water levels of all major rivers in Sunamganj are also well above their danger marks.

A limited number of vehicles were plying on Sylhet-Sunamganj road as large sections of it went under flood water, effectively cutting off the two districts from each other.

Authorities were also forced to disconnect power and gas supply in some flood-hit areas to avoid the risk of a bigger disaster.

Already nine teams of the army in eight Upazilas of Sylhet and Sunamganj districts are conducting the rescue operation. They were involved in taking the flood-hit people to the nearest shelter homes, said Major General Hamidul Haque of Sylhet Cantonment.