RIYADH, 14 August 2007 — The Kingdom is in the process of sending five planeloads of urgent relief supplies for victims of floods in Bangladesh following instructions from Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah. One Saudi cargo plane with various types of relief supplies, including medicines, left Riyadh yesterday afternoon. A second plane is scheduled to leave for Dhaka on Aug. 16.
Waheedur Rahman, deputy chief of the Bangladeshi mission, thanked King Abdullah for providing SR187 million worth of assistance and said that this will go a long way in alleviating the sufferings of flood victims. “A number of Bangladeshi businessmen and community leaders have also come forward to extend assistance to their brethren in flood-hit areas,” he said.
“A total of five flights carrying relief supplies will operate to Dhaka,” said Rahman, adding that the remaining three planeloads will reach Dhaka on Aug. 20, 23 and 27.
Since June, more than 2,000 people have died across South Asia, mostly in Bangladesh, due to floods that have also caused an estimated damage running into hundreds of millions of dollars. Thousands of villages still remain under water and diseases threaten the surviving population.
Referring to donations raised by Bangladeshi expatriates, Rahman said, “Nearly SR100,000 have already been remitted by our own community.”
He added, “The embassy has now received instructions from Dhaka to receive donations for flood victims directly. ... Earlier, the embassy or the consulate was not authorized to accept any assistance and, hence, donors remitted the funds directly to the account of the chief adviser of the Bangladeshi premier.”
Md Abdus Sukur, founder president of the Sylhet-based Salema Samajhalyab Trust, who is personally involved in raising donations, said that the situation in the country has gone from bad to worse.
According to a report, diseases, including diarrhea, have broken out in Bangladesh. So far 11 people have died from diarrhea alone and some 6,711 people are suffering from respiratory diseases. The death toll in Bangladesh climbed to 350 on Monday with reports of 30 more deaths reaching the capital from various parts of the country.
