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Down in dumps

Wasim Bin Habib, fromSatkhim
Moshiur Rahman was staring at the Kobodak, once his only means of earning a living and now the reason he is homeless.
Sitting on a boat he was trying to figure out how he would feed his six-member family. He had not received any relief material since Aila hit his village Chalkla of Pratapnagar union, one of the remote Aila-affected areas in Satkhira.
"The only thing I had in my house was a sack of rice, which was washed away in the tidal surge. Now I don't know how I will feed my family," said Moshiur with a deep sigh.
"Four days have passed since Aila wreaked havoc on us but none came to us with relief materials or drinking water," he added.
At least 28,000 people of Pratapnagar union, one of the worst-affected areas, have been passing long days as they received extremely inadequate relief since the cyclone hit the union on May 25. A strong stench of dead livestock rotting in saline water has polluted air in the union.
On the Wapda embankment people were eagerly waiting for food and drinking waler.
"It's really disheartening to hear the same old clichd from the government that they have supplied adequate relief materials," said Akhtar Dhali, a resident of Chakla.
"I can't express how I feel when my child cries for food and 1 can do nothing about it," he said, adding that the main concern of the villagers is drinking water as most of the tube wells are still underwater.
Mamata, a resident of Shubhadrakathi, said she has only a few kilograms of saline-watcr-soaked rice remaining.
"The rice has become inedible and we could get infected with diarrhoea eatingit," she said.
The residents of Shubhadrakathi are quite lucky since they received some relief materials, even though inadequate, yesterday morning.
Only half a kilogram of flattened rice (chira), 200 grams of molasses, half a litre of water, a candle and a matchbox have so far been given to each family, she said.
FROM PAGE 1
People of Ruhirbeel, Sripur, Chuibaria and Kurikawnia told the same story to The Daily Star correspondent during visits thereyesterday.
The entire Pratapnagar union is surrounded by two rivers-the Kobodak and the Kholpetua. During the storm the embankments at several points got breached and water of these rivers still enter the union during high tide forcing villagers to live on the parts of embankments that are still intact.
Jahanara, wife of Ishaq Ali Sana of Shubhadrakathi, said the Kobodak washed away their three houses and around 8U maunds of rice they had stocked for rainy days.
"We had only watered rice [Panta bhat) with salt yesterday [Wednesday] and nothing since then, "she said.
She also said they received only half a kilogram of flattened rice and some molasses yesterday morning. "Howcould I feed my eight-member family with this tiny amount of relief?" she said.
Al Amin, a resident of Kurikawnia, said the main problem is drinking water. "We have no alternative to drinking the contaminated water of the few tube wells that have surfaced."
Abdul Mannan, chairman of Pratapnagar, said people of his union are passing hard days. They have no shelter.
"I have tried to distribute relief in every village of my union," he claimed.
Diarrhoea is spreading in the villages of Pratapnagar union.
Abdul Motalib, a resident of Ruhirbill, said his son and daughter-in-law have been suffering from diarrhoea for the
last three days after drinking contaminated water.
Residents of Ruhirbeel, Chuibaria and Kurikawnia also said diarrhoea victims are increasing in number in their villages.
Expressing his fears of a diarrhoea outbreak, Motalib said immediate measures should be taken to prevent a large-scale outbreak.
Cyclone Aila destroyed almost all the thatched houses in Pratapnagar union.
Only one concrete house remains standing in Shubhadrakathi. Most of the people of this village made shanties on theembapkrp^p(s.,
Abdul Hossain, a resident of Shubhadrakathi, is now living in a tiny shanty with his five-member family. "We can't sleep in the night as the place is too small for accommodating the five ofus," he said.
Many were seen living on the boats or roads inside the villages.
Embankments along the villages of Pratapnagar had breached during the storm. Many villagers were seen trying to repair the dykes on their own.
"We need the embankments to be repaired as soon as possible otherwise the entire area will go under water during every high tide," said Abdul Malek, a resident of Sripur village.
"As the high tide begins, our houses go underwater," he said, adding, "Only God knows what will happen in the coming rainy season."
Meanwhile, Health Minister AFM Ruhul Huq said adequate relief was dispatched and it needed proper distribution.
Visiting Ashashuni upazila, he urged all to come forward and help the Aila victims.