Every year Bangladesh faces one or another natural disaster. Some districts are also flooded for a short time. However, the severity of this year’s floods in the Sylhet region is unimaginable. Millions of people in Sylhet and Sunamganj became homeless due to lack of preparation or lack of disaster management. To save their lives, these people took shelter in the nearest shelter with cattle. Although the flood situation has improved somewhat, there is an acute shortage of food and potable water. Among the Banavasi people, besides maternity and patients, women and children suffer the most.
Rescue forces, local administrations and volunteers are trying to deal with all such problems. Apart from this, any immediate solution to the problem faced by women is really complicated. They are suffering due to lack of adequate toilet facilities in the shelters. After visiting some shelters in Sunamganj, Prothom Alo ‘s on-the-spot report revealed a tragic situation.
Hundreds of thousands of people have taken shelter in more than 600 shelters in Sylhet and Sunamganj districts. A large part of those people are women. A few toilets for a few hundred to a thousand people in a single shelter is by no means enough there.In many shelters it has more people than it can hold, and there is plenty of water all around. Men are able to go somewhere far away by boat or walk to other places on their knees to meet the toilet needs. But it is not possible for women. The matter has become extremely embarrassing for them. Some schools have adequate toilets but they do not have water supply and there is no environment to go there due to over usage. According to the women, the toilets have become so dirty that it is difficult for women to use them. They are also facing health risks. Some of the temporary shelters in Kompaniganj Upazila were visited, some of which did not have toilets, some of which had toilets but were submerged in water. The environment of any of them is very dirty.
Leave a Reply