Staff Correspondent
Chief Adviser to the interim government Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus urged the country's people to
come forward to addressing the ongoing devastating flood.
"With the initiatives and encouragement of the youth, the country's people should jump into
addressing the flood together. We must tackle the flood unitedly," he said after a meeting with the
representatives of non-government organisations (NGOs) at state guest house Jamuna here.
Briefing reporters in front of the Jamuna, chief adviser's press secretary Shafiqul Alam said Prof Yunus
was surprised seeing that people from all works of life have come forward to help the flood victims.
"The way the people of Bangladesh showed their spirit during the student-people movement, they are
coming up showing the same spontaneity in addressing the flood," he said quoted the chief adviser as
saying.
He said about 44 NGOs were invited to join the meeting and a fruitful and cordial meeting was held
today.
During the meeting, Prof Yunus asked the NGOs to conduct relief distribution and flood mitigation
programmes in a coordinated way, the press secretary said.
He said many people have already lost their houses, while all belongs, including utensils, of many were
washed away.
"The floodwater has started receding. After the flood, water-borne diseases and health related issues
emerge. During the meeting, they discussed how these issues can be addressed," Alam said.
About relief programme, he said people are collecting relief at village level and yesterday (Friday)
students collected a huge amount of relief at TSC of Dhaka University, which was a remarkable scene.
On communication, he said, the government continues coordination with army and mobile phone
companies to reconnect communication system at flood-hit areas.
"We are trying to make mobile towers operational by sending diesel oil there and resume power
connectivity as soon as possible. If electricity connection resumes, mobile phone service will be
operational. And once mobile network resumes, people living in flood-affected areas will be able to set
up a direct communication with diaspora…relief and rehabilitation have already started," Alam said.
Replying to a question, he said Prof Yunus said NGOs are the strength of Bangladesh and "We must
implement the dream the youth have shown us. And we can do it".
The Press Secretary said the chief adviser mentioned that NGOs always play a vital role in addressing
flood in Bangladesh.
Adviser Ali Imam Majumder, SDG Coordinator Lamiya Morshed, prominent economist Dr Debapriya
Bhattacharya, Rasheda K Chowdhury, ActionAid Bangladesh Executive Director Farah Kabir and BRAC
Executive Director Asif Saleh, among others, were present at the meeting.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, BRAC Executive Director Asif Saleh said there is a need for
international funds mobilisation to deal with the flood situation.
Saleh said both small and big NGOs were invited today and they shared their ideas so that the ongoing
flood could be addressed in a coordinated way.
"As we are working at field level, what should be the priority (in tackling flood) was discussed," he said,
adding they welcomed the joint initiative of public and private sector to work together.
He called for maintaining coordination at national and local levels in dealing with the flood.
Observing that reaching out relief to hard-to-reach areas is a very challenging task, the BRAC executive
director suggested distribution of relief by dividing the flood-hit areas into different zones so that relief
can be distributed in a more coordinated way.
The chief adviser, he said, asked the NGOs to pave a way so that the government and NGOs can mobilise
fund together in addressing the flood situation.
They (NGOs) also suggested taking a joint response plan in mobalising fund from international donors,
he said.
"We are planning together so that health issues could be addressed after the floodwater recedes," Saleh
said.
He sought cooperation from international community and Bangladeshi expatriates in raising fund for the
flood victims.
"International fund mobilisation is a must…a rough estimate of a NGO shows that we require Taka 1,000
crore to address the flood…we have started a need assessment and we have scopes to maintain
coordination in carrying out the need assessment," Saleh said.
