Health alert

The government has already begun to send relief materials to some of the affected areas. One would expect that sufficient quantities of medicines, water purifying tablets, ORS sachets and vaccines are on their way to the flood-hit areas, if these have not already reached there. Health risks should be the primary concern for the relief operations. Reports indicate that diarrhoea has already afflicted people in the northern districts, many of whom have been hospitalised.

Floods not only create water-logging but also exacerbate the pollution around us. Even people on the peripheries of the flooded area remain vulnerable to water- and air-borne diseases. So, a comprehensive preparedness and precautionary umbrella should be spread over the country.

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The predictions of widespread and long-lasting flooding can already be heard. The heavy rains since June have put the rivers in a spate but so long as the Padma, the Brahmaputra and the Meghna do not swell simultaneously there cannot be any catastrophic flood. In 1998, we had a dreadful flood. Five years on, we simply hope that amnesia has not developed amongst us to be disoriented from what it took then to tackle its aftermath. Let's devise a contingency plan, if we don't have one as yet, and start operationalising it without any loss of time.