STAR REPORT

Across the haor districts of northeastern Bangladesh, thousands of farmers are losing their only annual harvest to a combination of record pre-monsoon rainfall, breached embankments, and an acute shortage of harvesters and labourers.

“My golden paddy fields were destroyed. I couldn’t even bring a single grain home. How can I sustain my family?” Ratan Mia, a farmer from Kalimpur village in Kishoreganj’s Austagram upazila, said while sitting on the bank of a submerged haor that swallowed his 10 acres of paddy.

Forecasters warn that the worst is still ahead, citing a possibility of flash floods on the horizon.

The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) yesterday issued a 72-hour alert warning of heavy to very heavy rainfall across the entire northeastern haor basin.

“Water levels of all rivers in the region are rising fast, and the low-lying areas in Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj and Netrokona districts will be flooded in the next 72 hours,” said the alert.

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