Poor flood management
Tawhidur Rahman, Nazrul Islam Hall, BUET
Vast areas of our country are now submerged in flood water. The deluge of this year is similar to that of 1988 or '98 . For Bangladesh, it has been a perennial phenomena that at this particular time of the year floods bring untold sufferings to people. But the shocking thing is that there is no pragmatic and reliable approach to mitigate and manage floods. In this regard, our country lacks a long term visionary policy which could be devised by specialists and scientists. ***After reading the news "Inedible on the bowl" by Bishawjit Das (DS, July 29), I was really shocked. The local lawmaker reportedly said, "Do you think the relief comes from your father's assets ? Was it the language of a responsible person? Please don't give anything which is unfit for human consumption. I hope we will overcome the disaster with sincere efforts. Mamunur Rashid Tomal, Dept of English, DIU ***The leader of the opposition abandons the country during a crisis and goes to neighbouring India. The prime minister, too, had an option to send her foreign minister to attend the Bangkok summit, instead of going herself. This was not expected of the national leaders. Mir Rashid, Vancouver, Canada ***Thank you for the editorial on UN initiatives for mitigating flood crisis in Dhaka (DS Editorial on July 28, 2004). You rightly appreciated the UN mission working here and making exclusive initiatives. We also convey our heartiest congratulations to the UN mission for responding to our flood crisis. Particularly our sincere thanks to Mr. Larry Maramis, Acting Resident Coordinator of the UN in Bangladesh, who reportedly met with the minister concerned on 26 July at the latter's office, to know if the government had any objection to an international appeal for help by the UN . M Mamunur Rahman, Dhaka ***I am a Pakistani living in England. First of all, I want to offer my sympathy with the people of Bangladesh, may Allah let the people come out of their plight caused by the flooding. This is a testing time for all of us. Just out of curiosity, I wanted to tell you about a programme I saw on BBC News. It was about a new shape of houses made in Belgium which float on water if there is a flood. They are made of hollow concrete basement and will never sink in water. I was wondering if this could be of any help to you to pass on the message to the relevant authorities to carry on some research on it. Thousands of lives can be saved by it. Syed Raza Abbas, On e-mail
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