New areas are still being flooded in Mirsrai, 200,000 people are under water

The flood situation has worsened in Chittagong's Mirsrai. About two lakh people are still trapped in water. In some areas the water has receded but other areas are getting flooded again. Hundreds of people are trapped in different multi-storey buildings for four consecutive days.

About 165 villages of 11 unions were flooded since last Wednesday as the water level of the Feni river continued to rise due to continuous rains and landslides. Even on Sunday, many people have reached shelters due to continuous migration in some unions. Fish worth thousands of rupees have been washed away in Ban water. Which used to meet 70% of Chittagong's fish demand.

It has been found that, on one hand, lakhs of helpless people are trapped in the flood, on the other hand, two gates of Muhuri, the country's largest irrigation project located downstream of the Feni river, have been broken by the flood. Two more gates are useless. Due to this, on the one hand, the water of the Bay of Bengal is entering through the Feni River during the high tide, and during the low tide, the water drainage is disrupted due to the two gates being useless.

Meanwhile, in 1994, the Water Development Board (PUBO) constructed an 11.5 km long sea defense dam at Banshkhali and Ichakhali mouzas here under the Char Development Project to protect the Mirsrai settlement. Which has been heavily damaged by the floods of the past few days.

A resident of the dam area said that cracks have appeared in many places of the dam. Erosion has occurred somewhere. The people of the area are spending time in extreme fear.

Meanwhile, several thousand acres of fish enclosures in the Muhuri project area, known as one of the fish production zones of Chittagong, have been submerged in water for a few days. Anwar Hossain, General Secretary of Muhuri Project Fishery Association claimed that the farmers here have suffered a loss of Tk 500 crore.

He said that the flood started last Wednesday. The next day i.e. Thursday, the fish tank started sinking. Currently, thousands of acres of land are under water. According to the government, 49 thousand metric tons of fish were produced here every year. The current market value of which is about 1 thousand crores. In this flood, more than half of their enclosures were submerged and all the fish were washed away.

Mirsarai Upazila Senior Fisheries Officer Nasim Al Mahmud said that the target of fish production this year was 50 thousand metric tons. However, most of the fish enclosures were submerged in the flood and there was extensive damage. The damage cannot be calculated yet.

On the other hand, the Dhaka-Chittagong highway, which is considered as the lifeline of the country's economy, was closed due to floods for the past few days. From Sunday morning, the traffic on the Dhaka-bound lane began to return to normal. However, due to traffic jams in the last few days, essential raw products in many freight vehicles have been destroyed.

Mirsarai Upazila Secondary Education Officer Humayun Kabir Khan, one of the members of the committee formed to deal with disasters in Mirsarai Upazila, said that 20,000 people have taken shelter in 79 shelters in the upazila till 11:00 on Sunday. Many are taking shelter from shelters to relatives' houses. Mirsarai upazila administration is centrally monitoring the relief activities.

Mirsarai Upazila Assistant Commissioner (Land) Prashant Chakraborty said about the latest flood situation, no casualty was reported from Saturday night to Sunday. Water has started receding in some areas. Army, Police, Fire Service, Youth Red Crescent Alumni, various social organizations and students are individually rescuing the displaced people and distributing clean water, medicine and food among them.

Chittagong Palli Vidyut Samiti-3 Deputy General Manager of Baryarhat Zonal Office Hedayet Ullah and Deputy General Manager of Mirsrai Zonal Office Adnan Ahmed said that electricity supply has been started due to reduced intensity of water in some areas. Electricity service is still not available in most of the flood-affected areas.

Bangladesh /OF