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| Floods 2004 |
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The flooding triggered by Wednesday's Bogra embankment breaching that swamped all the 284 villages in Dhunat upazila has also hit adjacent Sirajganj district inundating entire Kazipur upazila on Thursday night. More than 5.5 lakh people are now marooned in Dhunat and Kazipur upazila, facing food and drinking water crises. Some 5,000 people have taken shelter on Dhunat-Goshaibari road and around 4,000 on Kazipur-Sirajganj road, while thousands more are stranded on their housetops and living under the open sky, waiting to be rescued.
The Brahmaputra flood control embankment breaching, blamed on saboteurs allegedly engaged by two pro-BNP groups of contractors, led to the deluge already leaving six people killed and 60 others still missing. Relatives of the missing fear they might have drowned in the fierce-flowing Jamuna. Flood-victims in Dhunat said many of them may have to starve to death soon as the local administration distributed a meagre quantity of rice only in parts of the 10 flooded unions. People were seen erecting makeshift houses on Kazipur-Sirajganj road and boats plying to rescue victims and move household goods. Saboteurs cut the dam open at Chuniapara in Dhunat's Goshaibari union and surging waters from the rain-fed Jamuna instantly cut a 500- metre swathe through it submerging villages and washing away houses. All villages in the upazila went under water by yesterday. Government statistics said flood waters submerged 12,000 houses and damaged 100-kilometre road in Dhunat. Only housetops were visible in many areas of Dhunat municipality and three of the 10 unions. Locals failed to bury a man in Maddhyaduar village Thursday night as there was no dry land. Waterborne diseases, mostly diarrhoea and dysentery, have broken out in different parts of the upazila but local administration is yet to distribute sanitary pans and install tubewells the government allocated two days ago. Hundreds of flood-affected women thronged Dhunat upazila headquarters yesterday on false information about relief but returned disappointed. Nazma Khatun, a mother of four from Daspara Mahalla, pleaded to reporters, "Please save our children, kindly report on us so that the government ensures supply of at least baby food and pure drinking water." Local administration distributed 12 tonnes of rice in Goshaibari union and 10 tonnes in Bhandarbari union until yesterday. Many victims alleged the administration favoured ruling party supporters in relief distribution. The upazila parishad could not make any list of the affected people until yesterday.
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