THE onrush of flood water from upper areas of the country looks like it has set for a longer period. The same facade has appeared due to continuous rain during the current season and also for inflow of flood water from upper regions of neighbouring India. The natural channels of rivers have not contained the increased flow of water and flood water has inundated the landmass beside the rivers in the country. Among other rivers, the flow of water in the Jamuna at Sirajganj crossed the danger level.
The flood water has not only covered the land mass besides rivers in the northern region but also eroded the roads beside the Jamuna river. The same erosion has not only submerged the road between Sirajganj and Kazipur but apparently continues to cover more areas and road networks thereon. Reports on erosion of roads as well as riversides including rural and urban habitats besides rivers including the Teesta, the old Brahmaputra and the Karatoa appeared in the press.
The overall flood situation in the greater Rangpur and Bogra regions plus Sirajganj looks similar to the flood that haunted the region in 1988. The rural habitat as a whole has become all the more victim and the people at large may have to bear the burden of after-effects of flood for coming months. The erosion of riverbanks that devours the homesteads and arable lands may end up with increased uncertainty about farm products as well. If the flooding of the rural areas and urban complexes remains for a longer period, the after-effects will be all that more devastating. As reported in the press, the entire basins of the Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers as well as of the Ganges and the Padma rivers are vulnerable to flooding. The upper reaches of these rivers within neighbouring. Indian states are also reportedly overflooded. That being so, the outflow of flood water from such areas may create more problems for Bangladesh. The current flood of Sirajganj may become a part of the entire natural calamity that awaits its appearance in the region. Naturally, the people at large may look for redress from after-effects of flooding.
Those who have observed the recurrence of floods in the region may insist on preventive measures and immediate remedies. Thousands of villages and many urban areas that are flooded from time to time have awaited decades for corrective measures. They have looked for measures for keeping the river bases cleared off from sand and mud coming from upper regions. They have also insisted upon mutually acceptable and implementable programmes for flood control and river training system for neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and India. The prevailing flood situation in Sirajganj area in none but a facade of the recurring problem that haunts the Bengal basin that subsumes the Assam region of neighbouring India. More effective measures are needed for containing the severe effects of flood that occurs again and again. Those in government have to go for all types of policy dialogues and effective flood contol measures for ensuring the safety of the people and the land mass as such and without further delay.
