Fisheries and Livestock Advisor Farida Akhter said the devastating floods in 86 upazilas of 12 districts caused an estimated loss of over Taka 1,590 crore in the fisheries and livestock sector.
“The flash floods have incurred a massive loss in the fisheries and livestock sectors, which includes infrastructural damages, the inundation of live fish, and the destruction of animal feeds at a cost of Taka 1,590.36 crore," she said.
The advisor formally informed the journalists about the estimated loss of the sector due to the recent flash flood at a press briefing at her ministry’s conference room at the Bangladesh Secretariat here.
The recent deadly floods, particularly in Chattogram, Sylhet, and Khulna divisions, caused the deaths of huge livestock and destroyed poultry and other animal foods worth Taka 411 crore, the advisor mentioned.
The floods also damaged around 1,80,899 fisheries hatcheries and enclosures, 90,768 metric tonnes of fish and shrimp, and 3,746 lakh fish fries and post larvae (shrimp) in those areas.
To overcome the losses in the sector, the fisheries and livestock advisor said steps will be taken for the supply and distribution of emergency animal feed, vaccinations for checking livestock and poultry diseases, and the distribution of grass cutting machines.
The fisheries sector is playing an important role in food security, fulfilling nutritional demand, employment generation and poverty alleviation of the increasing population of the country, the advisor added.
Even the government will take a rehabilitation programme for the fish farmers, said Farida Akhter, adding that “the rehabilitation programmes include the distribution of credit, the development of flood forecasting and precautionary systems, providing necessary infrastructural support for saving the fish hatcheries, and the distribution of fish fries among the flood-affected fish farmers.”
