The Hindu : International : Floods displace 1 million Bangladeshis

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Aug 01, 2004

International

International

Floods displace 1 million Bangladeshis

By Randeep Ramesh

DHAKA, JULY 31. For the last two weeks, hundreds of thousands of people in Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh, have been unable to see the ground beneath their feet.

Heavy monsoon rains, the worst this decade, have drenched the city's 10 million people: turning Dhaka's roads and alleys into waterways ploughed only by rowing boats and makeshift rafts.

Mosquitoes swarm above the heads of children swimming through black, thick water. The smell of wet sewage singes nostrils but people still wash their dishes in, and even drink from, the putrid floodwaters.

So sought after are boatmen that local fishermen have stopped working in order to ply the watery byways — earning four times their normal daily wage of 200 taka.

More than a million people in the capital alone have been displaced by the floods. Many have remained stranded in their homes or on the roofs of partly submerged houses and buildings, waiting for food and fresh water. This impoverished nation is struggling to cope with the emerging crisis. The Government, which appeared reluctant at first to acknowledge the scale of the disaster, has now called for international help. —

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