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| Floods 2004 |
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Nearly 4,000 flood-hit people keep their fingers crossed that the promised food and medical relief from the government would arrive them at the flood shelters in Goran, east of the capital, before they fall sick with hunger. Even local ruling BNP leaders managing the flood shelters speak in a tone of frustration and shame at the absence of necessary government relief in Goran. "Local lawmaker and Works Minister Mirza Abbas is due to visit here on Thursday. We hope the relief will come following his visit," said a local BNP activist at Goran Adarsha Girls High School in East Goran, now turned into a flood shelter. More than 1,200 flood-hit people who have taken shelter in Goran flood shelter since July 23 complain that they are yet to receive any food or medical relief. "We came here in the hope of getting relief, which we have not received yet," said Mamtaz Begum, 60, who came to the Goran Adarsha High School after her ramshackle house was submerged by floodwaters.
Morjina, mother of three, broke down and said, "In the first days of the floods, we got by on what my husband earned by plying rickshaw. But he is now down with disease after pulling rickshaw in filth and dirt." "Since he hasn't been able to earn anything for the last two days, all we could eat is perched rice once a day," Morjina said. The president of Khilgaon thana Shecchashebok Dal, Zillur Rahman Khokon, admitted to The Daily Star, "It is true that we have not received any government relief as yet despite repeated requests." Relief also have not reached Ali Ahmed High School, another relief centre in Goran with more than 3,000 refugees since its opening on July 23. The relief centres could also not escape the floods with waters streaming into the makeshift kitchens inside the buildings. "I could not go begging in the last seven days," says Fazlul Karim, an old and frail beggar living on the leftovers of other refugees at Ali Ahmed High School. Like Fazlul, hundreds others have been left broke as they could not go to work. When The Daily Star journalists talked with the refugees at a shelter, Mariam Bibi, a mother of 7-month-old sick son, reacted angrily: "Give us food. We don't want blabbering from you." "After we came to this shelter a week ago, we had been listed thrice or four times. They talked much to us, took our photographs, but no relief has come our way!" Mariam exclaimed. Another refugee Siraj said, "Some people gave us some oral saline packets and asked three families to share each packet of it. But with so many people down with diarrhoea, the saline came to little use." Shamsul Islam Iqbal, a Juba Dal leader in charge of the shelter, also admitted that no relief has arrived at the shelter since its opening on July 21. "We heard that the government has allocated 50 tonnes of rice for Dhaka-6 constituency (of which Goran is a part). So we are hopeful that some food will come soon," said Iqbal.
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