Flood causes Tk1100 crore damage in Sylhet

Highlights:  

Flood damages in Sylhet:
-          Crops worth Tk40 crore were ruined 
-          Fisheries sector suffered Tk22 crore losses
-          Damages in roads amounts to Tk403 crore
-          38 of the 52 river protection dams in Sylhet were damaged
 

Recent flooding has caused damage amounting to over Tk1,000 crore in Sylhet, said sources at the district administration and the Sylhet City Corporation (SCC).
 
According to the Sylhet district administration, the flood has caused a loss of around Tk1,000 crore in the district, while the Sylhet City Corporation estimated that the city alone suffered damages amounting to Tk100 crore.
 
Roads, agriculture, and fisheries sectors in the district have suffered the most, while educational institutions, livestock and rural infrastructure were damaged severely in the flood, said officials concerned.

Since the flood hit Sylhet on 11 May, water has receded in some places, but most of the upazilas in the district are still inundated.
 
 Agri, fisheries and livestock hit hard
 
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE), flood ruined Boro paddy in 1,704 hectares of land, Aush paddy seed beds on 1,600 hectares of land, and summer vegetables in 1,471 hectares of land, causing over Tk40 crore losses, said Md Kazi Mojibur Rahman, deputy director of DAE at Sylhet.
 
According to the Sylhet Fisheries Office, flood washed away 2,305 metric tonne fish and 2.13 metric tonne fry in 18,749 ponds, which affected 15,163 fishermen. The infrastructural damage in farms amounted to Tk1.5 crore. The total damage caused by the flood in this sector is about Tk22 crore.

The total loss in the livestock sector amounts to about Tk1.37 crore.
 
 Roads and dams damaged 
 
The recent flood has caused the most damage to the roads in Sylhet city corporation as well as in 13 upazilas of the district. The losses amounted to around Tk403 crore, said sources.
 
Around 72 km of roads under the Roads and Highways Department (RHD) have been damaged in the flood.
 
Mustafizur Rahman, executive engineer of the RHD Sylhet office, said Tk5-20 crore is needed for emergency repairs to the broken roads, and Tk75 crore is required for permanent repairs.

Sources at the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) said about 278 km of roads and 28 culverts suffered damages amounting to Tk248 crore in the flood.
 
Nur Azizur Rahman, chief engineer of the Sylhet City Corporation, said the flood damaged about 250 km of roads in the city. Besides, the retaining wall of the water treatment plant at Kushighat was damaged. The river bank is eroding too. The truck terminal and SCC's pump house were also damaged.
 
The damage in the flood might exceed Tk100 crore and the amount can be confirmed by next week as the work to determine losses is still going on, he said.
 
According to the Water Development Board (WDB), floods have damaged 38 of the 52 river protection dams in Sylhet.
 
Asif Ahmed, executive engineer of the WDB in Sylhet, has recommended repairing the damaged embankments and raising the height of all the dams in the district.
 

Educational institutions, tubewells inundated
 
According to the Sylhet Deputy Commissioner's office, more than 600 educational institutions in the district have been submerged, causing an infrastructural loss of Tk1.51 crore to primary educational institutions and Tk3.45 crore to secondary schools and colleges.
 
The recent flood damaged 11,640 tubewells of the Department of Public Health Engineering. It has also damaged 1.15 lakh latrines and 6.5 km of water supply line in the area. However, the financial amount of their loss has not been determined yet.
 

Floods have also caused major damages to rural infrastructure in Sylhet. Many earthen houses have collapsed in the water. However, the extent of the damage has not yet been determined.
 
The floodwaters have caused extensive damage to the warehouses of more than 50 rice mills in the Kazirbazar area on the bank of Surma river in Sylhet city. The traders of Kalighat, the largest wholesale market in Sylhet, suffered huge losses due to rising water. The traders said that the amount of their loss will exceed crores of rupees.

Sylhet Deputy Commissioner Md Mojibur Rahman said, "We are preparing a list of flood damages in Sylhet city. I think the total loss will exceed Tk100 crore. We are also discussing ways of overcoming this loss."
 
Imran Ahmed, lawmaker from Sylhet-4 constituency and Minister for Expatriate Welfare, who visited the flood-hit Companiganj area in Sylhet on 21 May, said arrangements would be made to rehabilitate all the victims after the water recedes.
 
At a virtual meeting on disaster management organised by the City Corporation on 22 May, Foreign Minister Dr Ak Abdul Momen directed officials concerned to prepare a list of damaged roads, houses in the flooded areas of the city and send a detailed report on it to the ministry concerned as soon as possible.