Bangladeshis Battle Flood, Hunger and Disease

For the past two weeks, the 15,000 people of this town have been living in floodwaters.

They say they have received almost no help from the government, although the town is only 25 miles east of Dhaka, the capital.

Even in normal times, Banchharampur is isolated, like thousands of other towns and villages in this country that is now three-quarters submerged by overflowing rivers.

There are no roads connecting the town to the outside world. The trip to Dhaka takes five hours by motorboat.

Firoz--a villager who like many Bangladeshis uses just one name--delivers goods from the market when it isn’t flooded. He and his wife Hana said they tried to get medical help for their 7-year-old daughter Rahima, who had a fever.

“Government medical workers came here once, but the crowd was too big and they left before we could see them,” Firoz said.

Townspeople said eight people drowned or died of diarrhea or dysentery caused by drinking contaminated water. He said his family had received 4.4 pounds of free rice from the government and had to borrow money from other villagers to buy more.

The government and foreign relief agencies are struggling to reach millions of marooned flood victims by helicopter and boat. But with at least 65,000 villages spread across 55,000 square miles, the task is slow.

Sattar, his wife, Alia, and their three children normally eat 4.4 pounds of rice a day. Since the flood, the family has been getting by on 2.2 pounds or less, Alia said.

The family has purchased rice with Sattar’s last earnings as a porter, and money from the family’s only salable item--a chicken Alia managed to save when they abandoned their straw house, where water reached the roof.

Alia said her family took refuge with 20 other people in one room of a hostel built for college students, where the water was 18 inches deep. They piled wooden benches on top of each other in two tiers, creating a wobbly platform above the water.

The highest path through the village is a foot under water. In some houses women wade waist-deep in water to cook on boards propped just above the water.

But life in the village goes on. The government-run bank was open, although the few customers stood ankle-deep in water. At the deed registry office, clerks sat on platforms above the water with a black goat tethered in their midst.