Everybody loves a good deluge

This year's flooding of course wrought havoc in many parts of Bangladesh. I have no intention to belittle the magnitude of the destruction. But what is interesting is the controversy that has arisen over the loss caused by the flooding. The damage figure provided by various government departments and ministries seemed to be tentative and inflated and the independent think tank Centre for Policy Dialogue opened the Pandora's Box, creating uproar in the civil society.

The flood this year struck Bangladesh in the first week of July and affected northeastern, northern, and southern parts of the country. The government did nothing except allocating a meagre quantity of relief materials up to July 25 despite huge outcry in the independent media. The state-run television did not show any clips on flooding. Their news mainly concentrated on allocation of relief materials, which I already mentioned was small in quantity. The entire government machinery remained mum on the flooding and even a minister dubbed the pictures showed on the TV channels and published in newspapers as manufactured.

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As the floodwater entered into the capital city, the government high-ups suddenly woke up and the Prime Minster for the first time on July 25 visited flood affected Dhanut Upazila of Bogra and her cabinet colleagues later followed suit.

The Prime Minister initially brushed aside any international assistance to face the disaster, but she finally sought international help on July 27 to recoup the loss incurred by the flood, but only after assessment of the damage. Interestingly, on the same day the Food and Disaster Minister came up with a damage figure of Tk 40,000 crore.

It is a matter of surprise how the government machinery, which was not at all aware of the magnitude of flooding up to July 25, came up with the damage figure after only two days. And that is only the start. During the last two weeks, various ministries and departments arranged press briefings, spoke to reporters, and issued press releases to publicise the loss incurred in their respective departments and ministries.

The latest government figure of flood damage stands at $7 billion. The damage assessment needs time and on-the-spot visits. But even before complete recession of floodwaters, how various ministries and departments were providing damage figure is really a mystery.

For this reason controversy has arisen over the loss caused by the flooding. CPD on August 13 claimed that the loss wrought by flooding is Tk 11,418 crore and 3.4 per cent of the GDP. It is evident from the above controversy there is a big flaw in the assessment of the flood damage. And we can certainly say that most of the figure was prepared by the field level officials without on-the-spot assessment, but sitting in the office. Finance Minister M Saifur Rahman also perceived the sinister motive of the bureaucrats involved in the preparation of the damage figure and he termed the figure as trash.

There are obvious reasons for inflating the figure of the damage by the government officials. If the inflated figure is established, more allocation would come, and more allocation means more pillage. Nothing is impossible for our bureaucrats, technocrats, and their political cronies -- they can dig a pond, fill it, and make it plain land on paper without doing anything. Another thing that works is inflating the damage figure -- if you want a canon, you may expect at least a pistol.

I noticed such an arbitrary figure in a news report. Agriculture Ministry officials told Daily Jugantor that standing crops on nearly 8 lakh hectares of land was damaged in the flooding. Of them 2.3 lakh hectares were Aus paddy. The damage figure of Aus paddy surprised me. As an agriculturist and a member of a peasant family, so far as my knowledge goes, harvesting of Aus paddy finished in June. Moreover, during my several visits to the northern districts by road in the months of June and July (peak flooding period), I did not see any Aus paddy remained uncultivated in the field. The damage in the agriculture might be greater than mentioned in the report, but the way the officials are presenting it is causing damage to the entire nation.

Are the relief materials properly reaching the target population? A Prothom Alo report says that in Kurigram, out of 53 beneficiaries 43 were from a relation of a minister and they are from affluent families. This is a single example of misplacement of relief materials. During my recent visit to the northern districts, many people alleged of politicising the distribution of relief materials, seed and Aman seedlings. And embezzlement of relief materials is a common practice in our country. A close friend of mine who is a UP chairman in a northern district told me that they (chairmen) have to pay 20-25 per cent of the VGF allocation in cash to the TNO and district officials in advance.

Bangladesh has received about $40 billion as aid and grants since independence. A study by a renowned economist shows that only 25 per cent of the aid reached to the poor targeted people. The well-off people took away the remainder by various means, including embezzlement.

In each and every occasion of natural disaster we extend our hands to the international community. Begging in all norms is a disgraceful and hated thing. It taints the image of the entire nation. But in reality, our common people are not beggars. The alms brought in their names also do not reach to them. A handful of people comprising bureaucrats, technocrats, public representatives, and businessmen also consider such a disaster an opportunity of making their fortune. Will there be any different story this year?

Nazrul Islam is a journalist and environmentalist.