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Millions in Bangladesh are still without homes after severe floods

JUANA SUMMERS, HOST:

Last month, Bangladesh faced its worst floods in more than three decades. At least 70 people died, and around 6 million people were displaced. Much of the water has now subsided, but millions of people are still without homes, clean water or enough food. Shamim Chowdhury reports from the southern district of Noakhali.

(SOUNDBITE OF WATER SPLASHING)

SHAMIM CHOWDHURY: Nurul Haque wades across a murky pool of water. He places one foot cautiously in front of the other, avoiding the dirt and debris that the floods have washed in. He holds his lungi up high, but it's no use. It's soaking by the time he reaches me. Last month, his two-room house was submerged in three feet of water.

NURUL HAQUE: (Through interpreter) When the flood happened, I was so tense. I couldn't sleep. I had no idea where I would go so I went to a shelter.

CHOWDHURY: Those shelters were schools and mosques - hundreds of them across a huge swathe of northeastern, eastern and southern Bangladesh. We spoke to some of the villagers who have returned home. They're mainly farmers and fishermen. The waters washed away their crops and fish, leaving them with no income. We're in the district of Noakhali, where in some parts, the waters have yet to recede.

So did cars used to be able to come down this road before the floods?

HAQUE: (Through interpreter) Before the floods came, cars could come up this road. It was a proper road laid with bricks. Now it's impossible to drive along here.

CHOWDHURY: The droplets of water on the vegetation remind us that it's monsoon season here, and that means riverbeds can overflow. But decades of industrialization have also played their part, as Ashish Damle, country director for Oxfam, tells me.

ASHISH DAMLE: Within the last two decades, the urbanization in Bangladesh has grown more than 60%. Urbanization means more population growth in those areas, more constructions, etc. And obviously, it has impact on the entire aqua ecosystem.

CHOWDHURY: Four weeks on, the people here are still feeling the effects.

DAMLE: The unique feature of these floods were people did not get time to prepare themselves, so they just could save their lives. The lasting impact is on their livelihood.

CHOWDHURY: Haque has lived here all his life. He tells me he's never seen anything like this, and that he's ruined.

HAQUE: (Through interpreter) The fish have all gone. I had hoped to marry my daughter off. I was hoping to earn some money by fishing. Now I have nothing.

CHOWDHURY: With his hollow cheeks and toothless smile, he looks at least a decade older than his 65 years. He lifts up his threadbare vest to show me a deep scar - a reminder of a recent operation on his intestines.

He's not the only one with health issues made worse by the floods. Thofura Bibi is 58. An entire side of her one-room house was torn apart. All that remains is a mangled mound of sopping wood and rusty metal.

THOFURA BIBI: (Through interpreter) I've got joint pain in both my knees from walking through the water all these days.

CHOWDHURY: The floods are the first test of Bangladesh's new interim government, led by Nobel Laureate, Muhammad Yunus. But has it lived up to its promise of serving the people first?

(SOUNDBITE OF HORNS HONKING)

CHOWDHURY: To find out, we head to the nearby town to speak to the district's local government official, Muhammad Sarwar Uddin.

MUHAMMAD SARWAR UDDIN: (Non-English language spoken).

CHOWDHURY: He tells me the government has given 200 tons of rice and $8,400 for the relief effort. For now, most of the waters have subsided. But there's always next time.

DAMLE: We are already in climate emergencies, so that means we need to have a consistent, long-term, sustained response. I think that level of awareness is lacking at all levels, particularly among the policymakers.

CHOWDHURY: When the waters return, the likes of Haque will be impacted the most, and he fears that he'll be left with even less than he has now.

For NPR News, I'm Shamim Chowdhury in Noakhali, Bangladesh. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Shamim Chowdhury