CHITTAGONG Caritas Bangladesh is providing food relief for around 1,000 families deluged by rats in southeastern Bangladesh.
People in the Chittagong Hill Tracts have been struggling to feed themselves after the area was overrun by millions of rats—a phenomenon known locally as edur bonna, or “rat flood.”
The rodent infestation follows the overabundant flowering of a local species of bamboo, something that occurs once about every 50 years. This provides rats with a feast of high-protein food that accelerates their reproduction. Once the rats have ravaged the bamboo, they start on crops, consuming hundreds of tons of rice and maize.
Shukromohon Tonchungga, a 48-year-old tribal man, says he and his six family members have managed to survive because of Caritas assistance.
According to Tonchungga, the Church organization provided 30 kilograms of rice, which lasts his family 20 days. He said he tries to supplement their livelihood by selling dry turmeric or working as a day laborer. Apart from Caritas, Tonchungga’s family also received United Nations relief of 20 kilograms of rice, a kilo of nappi (dry fish powder) and 100 taka (about US$1.50), on which they could live for about 15 days.
Describing his ordeal, the farmer said rats swamped his fields at night and ate up the standing crops. “Fifteen of 17 families in our village, Chinipara, lost almost all their rice, maize and other crops due to the rats. We lost our food crops from which we earn money. We do not know how to recover this loss,” he narrated. “This is first time I experienced the rat flood. We did not know how to protect our crops because we did not know when the rats would attack our fields.”
Since March 27, Caritas, the local Catholic Church’s social and humanitarian relief organization, has been distributing 30 kilograms of rice to each of about 1,000 affected families in Bandarban district, around 300 kilometers southeast of Dhaka.
James Gomes, Caritas Chittagong regional director, reported that 114,600 people belonging to 19,100 tribal families in the Chittagong Hill Tracts have been affected by the rat flood, which began last November.
Caritas distributed immediate food and non-food relief to 650 families in December, Gomes told UCA News on April 25. He expressed fear that if further food relief is not provided, many tribal people will die of starvation before the next harvest, in July. Hence, Caritas will continue to distribute food until then, he said.
Pintu William Gomes, Caritas program manager for capacity building in disaster management, told UCA News the organization will distribute 30 kilograms of rice four more times to each of the 1,000 families, who live in four Bandarban sub-districts.
In addition, each family will receive 10 kilograms of rice seeds, two kilograms of maize seeds, 250 grams of pumpkin seeds and 150 grams of pepper seeds to help them plant new crops, Gomes said. Caritas has also been working for the tribal community through micro-credit programs, health care, education and land development, he added.
Gomes pointed out that this is the second major catastrophe in the region within a year. Besides the annual flooding between July and September that regularly inundates 30 of Bangladesh's 64 districts, the southern coastal area was ravaged by Cyclone Sidr in November, killing more than 3,300 people.
Source: www.ucanews.com