Flood damage estimated at Tk 26.90b

FE Team | Published: October 10, 2007 00:00:00 | Updated: February 01, 2018 00:00:00

FE Report
The country has suffered losses worth Tk 26.896 billion (about $384 million) due to the recent floods that affected 40 districts throughout the country, said a government damage assessment report.
The report was placed Tuesday at a meeting of the Local Consultative Group (LCG), a platform of the donors working in Bangladesh and the Economic Relations Division (ERD).
The government in its presentation said that Tk 26.896 billion would be required for the post-flood rehabilitation works in the flood-affected areas in the country.
However, the bilateral and multilateral donors proposed Bangladesh to create an emergency fund with the contributions from the donors and the government to face any disaster like flood.
"The government should develop a system to fight against any disaster and to overcome the losses where the donors can contribute. It is not possible to do the same exercise every year," said the LCG Chairperson and also the Country Director of the World Bank, Xian Zhu, after the meeting held at NEC conference room.
Representatives from different bilateral and multilateral donors include ADB, UK's Department for International Development (DFID), Japan, the United Nations Development Programme and Canada were present at the meeting.
Meanwhile, some bilateral and multilateral donors, including the World Bank (WB) and Asian Development Bank (ADB), had given indications of providing around US$200 million in fresh aid to Bangladesh for the post-flood rehabilitation works.
Xian Zhu said the WB is likely to provide $100 million fresh assistance to the government for the rehabilitation works on the basis of the final report that would be prepared by the WB, ADB and the government jointly.
He also indicated that the ADB could also provide similar amount for conducting the rehabilitation works.
According to sources, the ADB and WB are working to prepare flood assessment report. The government will also prepare a final assessment report soon.
ERD secretary M. Aminul Islam Bhuiyan said: "Apart from the $75 million budgetary support credit, the WB will relocate $130 million funds from the ongoing projects to the post-flood rehabilitation works. Besides, the ADB may also provide about $25 to $30 million budgetary support to recover from the flood losses."
"In addition, other bilateral and multilateral donors might jointly provide another $120-130 million fund for the rehabilitation works," he stated quoting assurances made by the donors in the LCG meeting.
"At the LCG meeting, we have presented the picture of the damage caused by the recent flood and the donors discussed on how they could help the government to recover from the losses quickly," he said.
Planning Secretary Zafor Ahmed Chowdhury presented the preliminary flood impact assessment report before the LCG meeting Tuesday.
According to the report, Tk 26896.14 million (about $384 million) will be required to overcome the losses and damages for the repeated flood that sustained from end-July to early-October this year.
According to the report, Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) under the Local Government and Rural Development & Cooperative Ministry will require Tk 11200.75 million, Roads and Highways Department (RHD) under the Communications Ministry Tk 6900 million, Water Development Board (WDB) under the Water Resources Ministry Tk 5380.05 million, Bangladesh Railway under the Communications Ministry Tk 380 million, Directorate of Secondary and Higher Education under the Educations Ministry Tk 500 million and other agencies and departments of different ministers Tk 2535.34 million for post-flood rehabilitation works.