Dr Yunus urges all to come forward to addressing flood

The chief adviser to the interim government, Professor Dr Muhammad Yunus, has urged the country's people to come forward to addressing the ongoing devastating flood.

"With the initiatives and encouragement of the youth, the country's people should jump into addressing the flood together. We must tackle the flood unitedly," he said after a meeting with the representatives of non-government organisations (NGOs) at state guest house Jamuna on Saturday.

Briefing reporters in front of the Jamuna, chief adviser's press secretary Shafiqul Alam said Prof Yunus was surprised to see that people from all walks of life have come forward to help the flood victims.

"The way the people of Bangladesh showed their spirit during the student-people movement, they are coming up showing the same spontaneity in addressing the flood," he quoted the chief adviser as saying.

He said about 44 NGOs were invited to join the meeting and a fruitful and cordial meeting was held. During the meeting, Prof Yunus asked the NGOs to conduct relief distribution and flood mitigation programmes in a coordinated way, the press secretary said.

He said many people have already lost their houses, while all belongings, including utensils, of many were washed away. 

"The floodwater has started receding. After the flood, water-borne diseases and health related issues emerge. During the meeting, they discussed how these issues can be addressed," Alam said.

About the relief programme, he said people are collecting relief at village level and yesterday (Friday) students collected a huge amount of relief at TSC of Dhaka University, which was a remarkable scene.

On communication, he said, the government continues coordination with army and mobile phone companies to reconnect communication systems in flood-hit areas.

"We are trying to make mobile towers operational by sending diesel oil there and resume power connectivity as soon as possible. If electricity connection resumes, mobile phone service will be operational. And once the mobile network resumes, people living in flood-affected areas will be able to set up a direct communication with diaspora...relief and rehabilitation have already started," Alam said.

Replying to a question, he said Prof Yunus said NGOs are the strength of Bangladesh and "We must implement the dream the youth have shown us. And we can do it".