Flooding hits 10 million

Press, 28 May 1984, Page 10

Flooding hits 10 million

NZPA-Reuter Dacca At least 10 million people had been affected by floods across wide areas of Bangladesh over the last three weeks, a Government Minister said yesterday. The Minister for Food, Relief and Rehabilitation, Air Vice-Marshal Abdul Gaffar Mahmood, said that the floods had hit the country’s north-eastern belt and destroyed nearly 100,000 tonnes of paddy. The floods and a drought last month had caused a shortfall by about 300,000 tonnes of the current year’s foodgrain production target of 16.1 million tonnes. Much of the shortfall would be met from the

import of foodgrain from the world’s affluent donors, he told a news conference after a visit to the affected areas. The Flood Forecasting Centre in Dacca said that waters in most of the areas were now receding, although they predicted another spell of heavy rain today. The official B.S.S. news agency earlier said that at least 100 people had been killed in the floods in teagrowing Sylhet and neighbouring Comilla districts. But Air Marshal Mahmood said that only 79 deaths had been confirmed so far. Emergency relief had been order®} to help people rendered by floods.