KHANI for declaring flood situation as ‘national disaster’ 

Food security network (KHANI), Bangladesh has come up with the demand that the flood situation in the country should be declared as 'national disaster'. 

The non-government organisation also said that the government should provide free food aid to the 5 million flood victims for the next 6 months, reads a press release today.

Due to mountain slopes and excessive rainfall, 31 districts of Bangladesh have been flooded over and about 5 millions of people directly affected by the disaster.  

Experts predicted that this flood could break the record of the flood of 1988. Due to this flood situation, the agriculture sector and food security are facing an extreme crisis.

The flood occurred at the moment while thousands of farmers in Bangladesh are struggling with Covid-19 pandemic. Vegetables and paddy fields of 20 districts have been spoiled due to waterlogging. Crops of 8 lakh hectares of land have been severely affected.  

Experts claimed that the combined attack of Covid-19, cyclone Amphan and flood will increase the rate of poor and food insecurity in rural Bangladesh. 

The Department of Agriculture in Bangladesh informed that 3.5 lakhs farmers lost their crops worth almost Tk350 crore during the flood.

It is notable that people in flooded areas are facing a food crisis, crisis of pure drinking water as well as sanitation. They complained of a huge mismanagement of relief activities in their locality. 

In this circumstance, KHANI has demanded for free food aid with a duration of 6 months for the affected people. KHANI also has demanded cash assistance for farmers, opportunity to repay all kinds of agriculture loans, NGO loans in their convenient time, government support of free seeds and seed beds for farmers, proper distribution of relief products according to flood situation and most importantly advance flood preparation to minimise the losses.