Bangladesh floods a curse and a blessing

[AussieMark]

Bangladesh floods a curse and a blessing

By Nizam Ahmed

SHAHABAZPUR, Bangladesh (Reuters) - Bangladeshi farmer Shafik dreads the monsoon, yet realizes it can also deliver prosperity.

More than a thousand people died and up to 10 million were left homeless last year in floods brought on by monsoon rains, the worst of their kind in 15 years.

But in a cruel twist, a year later the same Bangladeshi farmers who had cursed the rains say the raging floodwaters had provided them with bumper harvests.

"Usually we produce two-thirds of what we have produced this season," says rice farmer Shafik in the village of Shahabazpur, about 200 km (125 mile) east of Dhaka.

"I think it (flood) was not entirely a curse but partly a blessing too."

Shafik believes the huge quantity of alluvial soil carried by the long-lasting floods had re-fertilized his land and made higher production possible.

This year his bumper harvest of pre-monsoon rice yielded a record three tonnes per acre -- largely making up the grain deficit caused by last year's floods.

Other farmers say the floodwaters sweep away "harmful effects of excessive use of chemical fertilizers and replenish the land with natural fertility."

Monsoon floods occur every year in Bangladesh, but last year was particularly bad as about half the country was inundated.

More than 50 rivers flow in low-lying Bangladesh. Most of them begin in Nepal, China or India and swell during the monsoon, swallowing cities, towns and farmland.

"Bangladesh will have to live with the dilemma of natural disasters like floods for many years to come and these will worsen due to global warming and rising sea levels, over which people and their government have no control," said Dilruba Haider of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

"But what the government can do is to help people cope with flood aftermath like rebuilding their homes using less expensive local technology."

COPING BETTER

Bangladeshis are learning to cope better with the annual surge.

"I have raised my home three feet (one meter) because it went waist deep under water during the last year's floods," said Tanveer Ahmed of Brahmanbaria district, 200 km (120 miles) east of the capital, Dhaka.

The government said the country suffered losses worth $7 billion due to last year's floods but the World Bank and donor agencies lowered the estimate to more than $2 billion.

"Floods and storms are most natural for Bangladesh due to its geographical location and Bangladeshis have to live with these," Mohammad Yasin, a director of Flood Forecasting and Warning Center told Reuters.

The government offered immediate relief after last year's floods that prevented feared starvation and rebuilt many rural roads and bridges.

The government, however, is still widely criticized for doing too little, too late.

"The floods washed away everything we had in the fields and at homes but we received no help at all," said Mohammad Shafik, a farmer.

"The authorities have scrambled with promises but little help in the wake of every disaster. But they slip back on the promises once the water recedes or the scars of a cyclone begin to heal," adds school headmaster Shafiqul Islam.

Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf, minister for food and disaster management, says the sheer demographics of the country make flood management difficult.

Roughly the size of Greece, the country is home to 144 million people, of whom nearly two-thirds are employed in the agricultural sector.

"We do our best with whatever resources we have or can manage from donors and friendly governments to provide necessary support to the (disaster) victims," says Yusuf.

"But there are too many mouths to feed and too many issues to tackle which the government alone cannot do."

(Additional reporting by Anis Ahmed)