PC asks govt agencies to make flood-damage assessment

---

FHM Humayan Kabir
The Planning Commission (PC) has begun assessment of the damage caused by the recent flood that inundated more than half the country.
According to official sources, the Commission in the middle of the last month issued a set of guidelines to the ministries, divisions and agencies concerned of the government to estimate the losses due to the recent flood.
A senior PC official told the FE that after getting the reports from the ministries concerned on flood-damage, the PC is expected to compile the final flood impact assessment report within this month.
After finalisation of the assessment report, the government would initiate post-flood rehabilitation works with funds to be mobilised from domestic as well as external sources, he stated.
As per initial assessment of the Finance Ministry, the extent of damage by the recent flood will be around 50 per cent compared to that of the flood of 2004-05. And the affected sectors are agriculture, communications, education, health, rural infrastructure and embankments.
The World Bank estimated the total economic loss due to flood in 2004 at US$2.3 billion.
The PC official said the commission in its guidelines issued in mid-August asked the ministries to assess the actual loss to the ongoing development projects. The ministries have also been asked to take up new projects, if necessary, for the post-flood rehabilitation works and specify their requirement of funds, he added.
The PC official said the government has already started to divert funds from the less important projects in the current Annual Development Programme (ADP) to the post-flood rehabilitation works.
Meanwhile, the local consultative group (LCG), a platform of the development partners working in Bangladesh, in separate meetings with the government in August informed that they would extend their cooperation for the post-flood rehabilitation work after getting the full picture of losses due to the flood in Bangladesh.
In the meantime, some development partners including Saudi Arabia, World Food Programme, Germany, UK's Department for International Development (DFID) have extended their support to the government for operating relief works in the flood-hit areas.
A senior Economic Relations Division (ERD) official said that in the last two LCG meeting, the government apprised the donors of the flood situation and its physical losses. "But as there is no in-depth assessment of the impact, the economical losses from the flood are yet to be ascertained," he said.
However, the Finance Secretary at the last LCG meeting on August 19 sought $150 million as budget any support from the development partners.
The World Bank in its preliminary impact assessment on recent flood expressed the fear that the GDP growth in Bangladesh could be reduced to 6.8 percent from the original target of 7.0 per cent in the current fiscal 2007-08.