Downpours give Rajshahi fish cultivators a heavy blow

RAJSHAHI, Oct 10: Incessant rainfalls for several days have brought
the fish farming sector in Rajshahi district to its knee causing extensive losses to those involved in it.
Fish from 752 ponds got washed away due to heavy rains, causing Tk1.0 billion worth of loss to the farmers in Rajshahi, said sources at the district's Fisheries Department Office.
But affected fish farmers claimed that the number of washed away ponds could be higher and consequently extent of the losses would be much more.
Hazrat Ali, a fish farmer and former chairman of Gogram Union Parishad of Godagari, said he has a number of ponds extending an area of his 100 bighas of land in Kamalapur Beel.
All the fish in the ponds except the one on 16 bighas of land escaped with overflowing floodwater.
He claimed that in Kamalapur Beel alone his loss will be Tk1.0 billion.
Meanwhile, 26 people were swept away by strong current while trying to release fish from a low-lying pond into a pond on high land owned by an individual before the pond overflowed by rainwater.
Informed, policemen rushed to the spot and rescued 25 of them.
A person named Moqsed Ali went missing in Kamalapur Beel in the strong current of the upstream rainwater.
The following night, his body was caught in fishing net.
After the ponds were washed away, hundreds of people started catching fish using nets in the canals of Rajshahi.
On Monday, local people were seen fishing in groups in different areas, where even big sized fish got caught in nets.
A downpour started at 10:30 pm on October 4 and continued until 6:00 pm the following day. A number of ponds overflowed with fish due to the 246.6 millimetre rainfall.
Rajshahi city also was submerged following the rainfall, breaking 10 years' record.
The low-lying areas of the city were flooded while some places were waterlogged due to drains clogged with filths.
Boats moved on sunken roads and many people caught fish by using nets on the streets of the city's suburbs.
Abdus Salam, Rajshahi Meteorological Observatory observer said, Rajshahi recorded 254.6 millimetres of rainfall in September and 236.9 millimetres of rainfall were recorded there in five days of this month.
The city also recorded a 245.8 mm rainfall in 24 hours from 1:00 pm on Wednesday to 1:00 pm on Thursday.
It surpassed the highest rainfall record in the last 10 years.
Based on information from different upazilas, Jahangir Alam, district fisheries officer said, "Fish farmers incurred losses of around Tk 1.0 billion as a total of 752 ponds overflowed due to heavy rains in the district."
However, the extent of loss was the highest in Godagari upazila, amounting to about Tk 300 million as 250 ponds overflowed there.

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