Relief workers bring supplies to stranded communities following devastating floods in Bangladesh. Credit: Rafiqul Islam/IPS

By Rafiqul Islam
DHAKA, Jun 28 2022 (IPS)

After losing everything in the recent devastating flood that swept the northeastern districts in Bangladesh, pregnant mother Joynaba Akter, her three children and her husband took refuge in a shelter centre at Gowainghat in Sylhet.

“As the flood damaged all our belongings, my husband took us to Dasgaon Naogaon School shelter centre to escape,” Joynaba said. “I was in the final stages of my pregnancy, and that is why I had no alternative to going to the shelter centre amid this disaster. I was scared, and my husband took me here by boat.”

Joynaba gave birth to a baby girl at the centre last Friday, and she was happy to welcome the new family member, but she did not know how they would survive.

After giving birth to her child, she has been feeling ill but hasn’t any money for treatment, resulting in her newborn child not getting enough breast milk.

When the flooding stopped in the Gowainghat area, she returned to her homestead but found nothing remained as the flood washed away all their belongings.

“My husband had an auto-rickshaw. The flood washed it away too,” Joynaba said.

They built a makeshift shelter with tin sheets and installed a temporary cooking stove at their homestead. But they don’t have enough grain to cook.

“We have only four kilograms of rice and 250 grams of pulses, and one kilogram of potato that we got as relief at the cyclone centre. Once those are finished, we all have to be starving,” she said.

Seventy-year-old farmer, Suruj Ali’s house, was also flooded, and he, with his family members, took shelter at a building which is under construction located nearby his village. He also shifted his domestic cattle.

Eight days after they took shelter, Suruj Ali returned home on Friday. While the floodwater has receded from his house, the homestead’s yard is still under water.

“In front of my eyes, the flood washed away all the rice stored, and cattle feeds (like straw). I could do nothing. I was only able to save my cattle,” said Suruj Ali, a resident of Kaskalika Balaura village at Sylhet Sadar upazila.

The floodwaters have made him destitute, he said. All the rice stored in the house, utensils and even his mattress were washed away.

“I know a dark time (crisis) is waiting for my family and me. We are yet to get any aid,” Suruj Ali said.

Reports from the region say 2,500 millimetres of rainfall in the upstream Assam and Meghalaya of India over three days in the middle of June this year, resulting in floods in Bangladesh’s northeastern region. Many blame climate change for the floods affecting several million across the country.

In Netrakona district, over 554000 families have been affected by the floods in 10 upazilas (administrative regions). Some families have already returned home from shelters as floodwater recedes. But there are still about 112000 people in 353 shelters.

Mozammel Haque, chairman of Pogla Union Parishad (UP), Netrakona, said the official relief provided by the government was inadequate, while over half a million families were affected in the upazila.

The flood situation is improving in Sunamganj and Sylhet, but many homesteads are still under water.

“The water is still waist level in my home, so there was no way to return. All the goods in the house were destroyed,” said Idris Ali, who is staying at the Ikarachai Primary School shelter centre in Sunamganj.

Boats Rushing In Relief

Although the flood has started improving in the northeastern region, many families stuck in the remote haor (wetland) areas are still experiencing a food and drinking water crisis.

“In the remote bordering area in Sunamganj, many were calling for relief. We were taking boats with relief goods for them, but that was not adequate,” said AR Tareq, a volunteer group member involved in relief distribution in Sunamganj.

Bashir Miah, a resident of Darampasha in Sumamganj, said those on the main road received assistance, but few volunteers want to go to remote areas, which is why they are not accessing the relief.

Rajesh Chandro Ghosh, the coordinator of Low Cost Tour Bangladesh, another volunteer group that distributed relief in Sylhet, said: “We have distributed some relief goods under a private arrangement and saw how hopeless the flood victims’ situation is. They need more relief, particularly for those who are living in remote areas.”

But Sylhet Deputy Commissioner Mujibur Rahman told reporters there was no relief crisis.

“Flood situation is getting back normal in Sunamganj gradually. And we are carrying out relief distribution programme too,” Sunamganj Deputy Commissioner Jahangir Alam said.

However, Nurul Haque, convener of Jagannathpur Upazila Citizens Forum, said the pace of relief distribution was slow despite the government allocations, while a lack of coordination meant many were not receiving help.

The government has already allocated over Taka 7.11 crore (about 765 000 US dollars) as humanitarian assistance for the flood victims in 14 flood-hit districts, said Md Selim Hossain, Deputy Chief Information Officer at Disaster Management and Relief Ministry.

Besides, he said 5,820 metric tonnes of rice, 1.23 food packets and baby food. Cattle feed was also allocated across the country.

Waterborne Diseases on the Rise

Bangladesh’s death toll from the flood was estimated at least 84, according to the Health Emergency and Control Room of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS).

Most died in floods from May 17 to June 26 in Sylhet, Mymensingh and Rangpur divisions. The most casualties occurred in the Sylhet division, with 52 deaths, while 28 people died in Mymensingh and four in Rangpur.

Diarrhoea outbreak has been reported in these flood-hit districts. Around 6,000 people have been diagnosed with waterborne diseases across the country, according to the DGHS data.

IPS UN Bureau Report

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The Jangwani slum in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, was flooded during the heavy rain at the end of 2013 and early this year. Credit: Muhidin Issa Michuzi/IPS

By Kizito Makoye
DAR ES SALAAM, Feb 18 2014 (IPS)

Residents in low-lying areas in Tanzania’s largest city, Dar es Salaam, are potentially at risk of contracting waterborne diseases as heavy rains, which started last week, continue to pound the city.

Early this month, the Tanzania Meteorological Agency (TMA) announced that Dar es Salaam was among the areas in northern and southern Tanzania that would receive above-average rainfall and strong winds in the coming weeks, and urged residents to take precautions.

Tanzania’s eastern Morogoro Region was also affected in January as flash floods displaced over 10,000 people and damaged infrastructure such as roads and houses.

In Jangwani and  Kigogo, administrative areas in Dar es Salaam, residents who refused to heed the government’s call to vacate the area are being affected by the current downpour.

“I couldn’t sleep last night, the rain resulted in a lot of water here,” resident Maulid Ali told IPS.

Local residents from Kigogo told IPS that the water had become a serious health hazard because people are emptying their pit latrines into the flooded water, which resulted in human excreta spreading through the area.

“We drink water from the well but when it rains it is difficult to know if it is safe,” Riziki Mwenda, a resident of Kigogo, told IPS.

Public health experts have cautioned that residents in disaster-prone areas are potentially vulnerable to epidemic diseases.

Dar es Salaam regional commissioner Said Meck Sadick told IPS that waterborne diseases were endemic to the city because some residents did not observe good hygiene.

“We keep on reminding people in low-lying areas to take precautions and observe health regulations such as boiling water and using toilet facilities,” he said.

According to data from the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, Dar es Salaam is among five coastal regions with the highest number of cholera cases with incidents reported almost every year.

But these cases could increase as this East African nation experiences the visible impact of climate change.

A 2011 study by the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health stated that risks to cholera increase by 15 to 29 percent with a one degree Celsius temperature increase.

Projections by the TMA show that mean annual temperatures here will increase between 2.1 to four degrees Celsius in northern, central and southern Tanzania by 2100.

The agency’s director of Research and Applied Meteorology, Ladislaus Chang’a, told IPS that increased frequency and severity of extreme weather events were likely to continue hitting most parts of the country.

He said that northern and southern Tanzania would experience an increase in rainfall ranging from five to 45 percent, adding that most parts of the country may experience a decrease in rainfall of 10 to 15 percent.

“A rapid increase or decrease of rainfall will hit most parts of the country, causing floods or droughts, which has contributed to malnutrition due to lack of food, increased infectious diseases and scarcity of clean water,” he said.

However, Herbert Kashililah, a technical advisor with global charity Water Aid, told IPS that the increasing number of epidemic diseases related to climate change in Dar es Salaam was largely exacerbated by existing policy gaps and lack of citizen accountability.

“The existing gap between policy and practice is attributed to lack of accountability from principal actors and overlap of authority between local governments and central ministry in enforcing existing laws controlling such diseases,” he said. Tanzania has no policy on climate change.

Kashililah said that public health enforcement should be taken seriously.

“The government should significantly invest in a clean water supply for every city resident but [should] also ensure waste water is properly managed,” he said.

Kashililah said that a majority of households obtain water from boreholes that are contaminated with sewage and sanitation effluents and still did not have access to running water.

The government admitted that communicable diseases still posed a serious public health risk across the country as a whole despite efforts to prevent and control it.

The Minister for Health and Social Welfare Dr. Seif Rashid told IPS that the government was committed to improving the health and well-being of Tanzanians by encouraging the health system to be more responsive to those at risk of contracting waterborne diseases.

“The policy is there and how we implement it very much depends on the funds allocated in the national budget,” he said.

Rashid said that the government would continue its public education campaign through community-based programmes so that people understand and take appropriate measures to prevent themselves from contracting diseases.

He added that the government hoped to improve water supply and sanitation services across the country through its donor-funded Water Sector Development Programme.

A Palestinian family evacuating home on Nafaq street in Gaza City after the flood. Credit: Mohammed Omer/IPS.

By Mohammed Omer
GAZA CITY , Dec 20 2013 (IPS)

Wearing tattered shoes and hopping between dirty puddles, 14-year-old Sabeh manages to find his way to the market at the Al Shati refugee camp, one of Gaza’s most heavily populated and poor areas.

He asks a man selling socks if he can buy a pair for one shekel (29 cents). Sabeh looks despondent when the salesman says, “three shekels and no less.”

The boy protests and says his feet are freezing, but the salesman is adamant. Sabeh tries again: “But I’m freezing and this is all I have.” Both know the socks won’t help as long as Sabeh’s shoes are torn and soaked in cold, slushy sewage water.Alsweriki is concerned how their properties, damaged by flood and sewage water, will hold up as Israel continues its blockade on materials needed for repairs in Gaza.

A torrent of heavy rain over Gaza this week forced 40,000 residents out of their homes – 5,000 of them had to be evacuated by Palestinian rescue crews in boats. Two people were killed and at least 108 injured, according to Dr. Ashraf Al Qedra, spokesman for the Gaza health ministry.

Storm Alexa that hit Gaza is a ‘once-in-a-century storm’. Israeli meteorologists have called it the worst since 1879.

Beginning a week ago, Alexa crossed Syria, Palestine, Israel and some parts of Sinai. A thick blanket of snow covered the West Bank and some areas in Gaza too experienced snow – something that hasn’t occurred in years.

The 1.8 million people of the Gaza Strip, who struggle every day under an Israeli blockade, were unprepared for a storm that has affected every aspect of their life. Low-lying areas are the hardest hit, with thousands of homes flooded.

The flimsy door of Noor Pharmacy at Al Nafaq Street can’t stop the water and it pours in, inundating the cupboards and drenching the medicines. The owner seems to be at a complete loss as to where to begin repairing the damage, but is well aware that his losses may never be adequately compensated.

Nafaq Street has been badly affected by the rain and flooding, but doesn’t get as much attention as other areas that have been damaged by Israeli attacks. The heavy rain and snow is an extra burden for Gaza, which is already going without power.

Families on Nafaq Street were evacuated to a neighbourhood school-turned-makeshift shelter.

Thirty-year-old Shadi Alsweriki’s house was flooded. He was unable to retrieve anything while fleeing the gushing waters. Now all he has is two blankets and two mattresses for himself, his wife and two small children. He got food from humanitarian groups, but his family’s needs are far from taken care of.

Yasser Al Shanti, deputy head of the crisis team, says the burst of rainfall was above 90 percent of the average annual rainfall in Gaza.

The timing of the storm could not have been worse as it came amid fuel shortages and electricity cuts in Gaza brought on by tighter Egyptian controls in the south and high taxes on fuel prices by Israel in the north.

Mosques have asked people to donate spare blankets and clothes, and some trucks have made their way to the worst-hit areas. But supplies are sparse.

A rescue team member stands on a boat and another man stands on his shoulders trying to reach up to some people stuck without any food or clean water in a third floor apartment.

Mohammed Abu Draz, 43, who is from Abbasan in the south Gaza Strip, is stunned by the turn of events. He was preparing to take the produce from his three chicken farms to Gaza markets when the rains came and destroyed everything.

Each of his farms had 3,000 to 5,000 chickens. He estimates he has suffered a damage of nearly 42,000 dollars.

“There used to be 5,000 chicks over there,” said Abu Draz pointing to the remains of a farm about to be removed by municipality bulldozers.

Gaza minister of agriculture Ali Al Tarshawi has accused Israel of opening sewage water dams in Wadi al Salqa along the border, resulting in the flooding of agricultural land and farms.

Al Tarshawi says there has been 1.7 million dollars worth of damage to livestock.

A spokesman of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) said that following the storm, “the world community needs to bring effective pressure to end the blockade of Gaza.”

In response to de facto Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh’s appeal to the Emir of Qatar, 10 million dollars have been handed to the Palestinian Authority to buy fuel from Israel for Gaza’s power plant.

Gaza has suffered more than 45 days of blackouts lasting up to 18 hours daily. During the storm, some areas had no power for 72 continuous hours. Now 450,000 litres of fuel donated by Qatar has arrived to help resume operations at Gaza’s sole electricity plant.

Minister of housing Yousef Ghuriz, who is in charge of crisis teams, estimates that the damage to homes, infrastructure and businesses from the rain and floods is around 64 million dollars.

After flood waters were pumped out, some Gazans have been able to go back to their homes, but rescue teams say at least 4,000 people are still living in schools-turned-makeshift shelters.

Alsweriki has been given 140 dollars as aid to put his life back on track, but he and his family have been asked to leave the school that is his only shelter at the moment.

Like other victims, he is concerned about how their properties, damaged by flood and sewage water, will hold up as Israel continues its blockade on materials needed for repairs in Gaza.

Life, as they knew it, has slipped away.