U.N. oversees relief operation for Bangladesh

Press, 12 September 1988, Page 8

U.N. oversees relief operation for Bangladesh

NZPA-Reuter Dhaka Thousands of people sick from drinking contaminated water or eating rotten food overwhelmed hospitals in Bangladesh and more rains inundated new areas as the United Nations pressed forward with a relief programme.

At least 900 people have died in the floods and 25 million have been made homeless, according to official statistics. Unofficial sources put at 1600 the death toll from floods, disease and snakebites. Health workers said nearly 26,000 people reported for treatment at hospitals on Saturday, bringing their number to nearly 200,000 in less than three weeks. At least 150 of the deaths have been attributed to diarrhoeal diseases. The United Nations on Saturday appointed the chief of its Disaster Relief Organisation (U.N.D.R.0.) as co-ordinator of relief operations.

Hameed Essaafi is an acknowledged expert on Bangladesh. He visited the country last September after monsoon floods killed 1600 people and destroyed 3.4 million tonnes of rice, the population’s main staple. “This time it is a far worse catastrophe,” a senior Government official said on Saturday. Hundreds of villages remained cut off as the flooding, the worst on record in the impoverished country of 110 million, disrupted road and rail communications. “There is no way the broken links will be restored quickly and many people could die in isola-

tion before any help reached them at all,” said the official. Weather officials said on Saturday night that floodwaters had been receding slowly in northern districts but more rain inundated new areas in the south. Levels were expected to fall on Sunday more quickly after a solar eclipse. Bangladesh has received promises of SUS22I million (SNZ346 million) in emergency aid, including $l5O million from the United States, following an appeal by President Hossain Mohammad Ershad. Washington is due to

send military helicopters to help transport food, drinking water and medicine to stricken areas. Preliminary estimates show the floods have washed away at least three million tonnes of rice, 3500 km of roads and 250 bridges. Nine years ago, Bangladesh’s Government and the World Bank issued a report predicting a flood in 1988-89 inundating at least 70 per cent of the country. The Government was also advised to install small structures and ensure adequate water supplies, but there has apprently been no systematic flood control strategy

since. “The deluge this year had been predicted but not its magnitude,” one official said.

Bangladesh has been flooded 26 times in the last 40 years, at least five times on a large scale, according to official records.

A United Nations expert said flood in the region had been exacerbated by deforestation and soil erosion in the Himalayas and by removal of natural barriers.

“It is to a large extent man-made,” said Tom Elhaut, of the Rome-based International Fund for Agricultural Development.