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Cost accountants put flood losses at $8b

STAR BUSINESS REPORT
A study by the Institute of Cost and Management Accountants of Bangladesh (ICMAB) has estimated a loss well over US$8 billion from the damage of flood this year.
"Standing crops worth Tk1,895 crore in 1,290,000 hectares land in 30 districts was destroyed. Loss in 17,000 dairy farms has been estimated at Tk3,950 crore," said the study report.
The ICMAB study 'Damages caused by flood-2004' was based on 1000 interviews conducted in 350 unions across the country.
Loss of fish that perished due to flood has been estimated worth Tk1,550 crore, estimated damage caused to plant and machinery and other industrial structures stood at Tk3,895 crore and damage to school and other educational institutions stood at Tk1,685 crore.
The study estimated that fund needed for agriculture rehabilitation and rejuvenation would be Tk 1,295 crore, repair and reconstruction of 18,000 km of flood embankments would cost Tk3,455 crore, emergency succours in the form of food and clothes would cost Tk2400 crore while loss of wages of 5.5 lakh workers has been estimated at Tk3050 crore.
The budget should look more practical and promote scarce-resources for disaster preparedness to face perennial floods and droughts, which eat away an annual 4 to 5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP), the report suggested.
Combined with the heavy rains in short intervals the floods this year proved to be the worst in living memory and caused immense damage in financial terms which is 15 percent of the
GDP at the minimum, the report said.
While the 1998 flood loss in terms of property and structures alone was estimated at around US$2 billion, this year the severity of floods in at least one-third of the country was far greater and the capital itself suffered most, it said.
The study showed as around 60 percent of the landmass went under flood water, it would take more than a year to recover from the massive damage to lands, people, property of the country. While the agriculture sector suffered a staggering loss, the industries sector has not been spared. But damages to infrastructure and communications system are affecting the people at large.
"We could have kept damage at the minimum had the flood protection embankments scheme
taken in hand in 1988 been completed in time," the study observed. The embankments already built had developed breaches in many places and should be repaired and new embankments should be built to save areas from flooding, it added.
It mentioned more than 90 percent floodwater of the Ganges, the Meghna and the Brahmaputra flowed over Bangladesh from the last week of July to the first week ofAugust making the flood as one of the worst in 50 years since 1953.
Standing crops including summer vegetables, jute, kaun, and growing Aman seedlings in over 1,190,000 hectares of lands remained under floodwaters in the affected districts even by the end of August, the study said.