Govt agencies sit tomorrow to work out flood rehabilitation plan
Tuesday, 7 August 2007
S M Jahangir
All the relevant government agencies will sit tomorrow (Wednesday) to work out a comprehensive rehabilitation programme, aiming to help recoup the possible losses due to the ongoing devastating floods, sources said.
The meeting is expected to discuss the government's current relief operations and next course of action to be taken for rehabilitating the affected people, assets and agriculture soon after the improvement of the flood situation.
"The government has called the meeting at the Cabinet Division to mainly devise a comprehensive strategy for successfully running the post-flood rehabilitation programme," a senior government official said.
Advisers and senior officials from all related agencies, including ministries of Food and Disaster Management, Agriculture, Finance and Planning, Foreign Affairs, Information, Home Affairs, Industries, Communications, Defence Ministries and Health and Family, are expected to take part in the meeting.
The main purpose of the meeting is to facilitate early assessment of the flood-related losses and work out a plan as to how the possible losses could be recovered.
Laying especial emphasis on launching an effective post-flood rehabilitation programme, an official said: "The sooner such a step will be taken, the better it will yield result."
Although the extent of losses is yet to be ascertained, the government is preparing for its rehabilitation scheme based on the primary information regarding the post flood-related losses, officials said.
Citing the initial statistics of various monitoring cells, they said the current floods have already taken its heavy toll on public properties, road and communications infrastructure and agriculture.
Nearly 10 million people belonging to nearly 1.7 million families have been affected by the floods that hit a total 235 upazilas/municipalities of about 39 districts in the country, official sources suggested.
Floods completely damaged about 90,000 houses, 2,800 kilometres (km) of roads, 297 educational institutions, 36.65 kms of dam, 18 bridges/culverts, according to a flood coordination cell.
Moreover, nearly 6,00,000 houses, over 15,000 kms of roads, 1500 kms of dam and 690 culverts were partially affected due to the current flood.
Apart from such asset losses, the floodwaters have already submerged crops on about 1.5 million acres of land, badly damaging 'aman' seedlings, standing 'aus' crops, growing vegetables and jute plants.
Agriculturists and officials, however, underscored the need for taking massive rehabilitation programme immediately after the floodwaters recession for recouping the losses faced by the local agriculture.
The Agriculture Ministry has already established a cell to monitor the flood situation, and also to assess the extent of losses to be faced by the country's agriculture sector due to the current flooding.
Fearing the possible crop losses due to the floods, the government has already planned to prepare aman seedbeds on 500 acres of land for distributing it to the affected farmers after the floods situation improvement, an MoA official said.
Moreover, the MoA will also provide seeds and other necessary support to the farmers for the preparation of aman seedbeds on 10 acres of land in every flood-hit upazila, said the official.
All the relevant government agencies will sit tomorrow (Wednesday) to work out a comprehensive rehabilitation programme, aiming to help recoup the possible losses due to the ongoing devastating floods, sources said.
The meeting is expected to discuss the government's current relief operations and next course of action to be taken for rehabilitating the affected people, assets and agriculture soon after the improvement of the flood situation.
"The government has called the meeting at the Cabinet Division to mainly devise a comprehensive strategy for successfully running the post-flood rehabilitation programme," a senior government official said.
Advisers and senior officials from all related agencies, including ministries of Food and Disaster Management, Agriculture, Finance and Planning, Foreign Affairs, Information, Home Affairs, Industries, Communications, Defence Ministries and Health and Family, are expected to take part in the meeting.
The main purpose of the meeting is to facilitate early assessment of the flood-related losses and work out a plan as to how the possible losses could be recovered.
Laying especial emphasis on launching an effective post-flood rehabilitation programme, an official said: "The sooner such a step will be taken, the better it will yield result."
Although the extent of losses is yet to be ascertained, the government is preparing for its rehabilitation scheme based on the primary information regarding the post flood-related losses, officials said.
Citing the initial statistics of various monitoring cells, they said the current floods have already taken its heavy toll on public properties, road and communications infrastructure and agriculture.
Nearly 10 million people belonging to nearly 1.7 million families have been affected by the floods that hit a total 235 upazilas/municipalities of about 39 districts in the country, official sources suggested.
Floods completely damaged about 90,000 houses, 2,800 kilometres (km) of roads, 297 educational institutions, 36.65 kms of dam, 18 bridges/culverts, according to a flood coordination cell.
Moreover, nearly 6,00,000 houses, over 15,000 kms of roads, 1500 kms of dam and 690 culverts were partially affected due to the current flood.
Apart from such asset losses, the floodwaters have already submerged crops on about 1.5 million acres of land, badly damaging 'aman' seedlings, standing 'aus' crops, growing vegetables and jute plants.
Agriculturists and officials, however, underscored the need for taking massive rehabilitation programme immediately after the floodwaters recession for recouping the losses faced by the local agriculture.
The Agriculture Ministry has already established a cell to monitor the flood situation, and also to assess the extent of losses to be faced by the country's agriculture sector due to the current flooding.
Fearing the possible crop losses due to the floods, the government has already planned to prepare aman seedbeds on 500 acres of land for distributing it to the affected farmers after the floods situation improvement, an MoA official said.
Moreover, the MoA will also provide seeds and other necessary support to the farmers for the preparation of aman seedbeds on 10 acres of land in every flood-hit upazila, said the official.