DHAKA, 3 August 2004 — The United Nations Children’s Fund launched an appeal yesterday for $13.4 million to provide emergency relief for women and children hit by Bangladesh’s floods, which have claimed at least 586 lives.
“Bangladeshi children living on the edge urgently need attention to save them from the worst ravages of flood,” said A.P.B. Senagama, officer-in-charge of UNICEF Bangladesh.
“We are facing the judgment of time and must move swiftly to provide relief and hope to the most vulnerable children,” he added. A separate UN statement said yesterday that aid workers, some traveling by boat, aimed to deliver aid to three million people.
Floodwaters are receding after submerging up to two-thirds of the country, but many residents are still cut off and in dire need of food and clean water, the UN statement said. Relief workers will travel by boat to take aid to tens of thousands of people still marooned by floods in Bangladesh, the United Nations said.
The relief workers would be distributing emergency aid supplies funded by a $16 million donation from Britain. The United Nations said it would hold a donors’ meeting tomorrow to coordinate immediate relief and launch an international appeal next week to raise funds for post-flood rehabilitation.
“Normally the (Bangladesh) government handles the annual flooding caused by the monsoon but the early onset of heavy rains this year has stretched their response systems,” said UN resident coordinator Douglas Coutts.
“The UN agencies along with the donor community and non-governmental organizations are helping to fill the gaps in this relief effort,” he said. The flooding, which at its height was estimated to have cut off or marooned 30 million people, is the heaviest seen in Bangladesh since its worst ever floods of 1998 which left more than 700 dead and 21 million homeless.
The Bangladeshi government has said the latest flooding has caused 6.6 billion dollars in damage to property and infrastructure.
The official news agency BSS said yesterday the flood waters were receding in all parts of the country except the south. It put the death toll at 586 but said unconfirmed reports said the figure was more than 600.
Meanwhile, the ruling Nationalist-Islamist coalition in Bangladesh suffered a political setback yesterday, losing in a keenly fought by-election in an industrial constituency north of the capital Dhaka, officials said.
Official results published by the Election Commission yesterday showed Zahid Ahsan Russel, a candidate of the main opposition Awami League, victorious by a wide margin.
