Tanguar Haor people never saw a flood like this
Last night I got a call from Dalim, a tourist boat operator from Tanguar Haor. "Sir, I am Dalim – remember me? You hired my boat last year to see around the haor," he said.
I remember him clearly. The young man runs a tourist boat large enough to host two dozen people during daytime and more than a dozen people at night. The boat comes with simple bedding and a clean toilet.
I instantly realised why he called me. There is a flood in Sylhet and he must be in grave danger. He must be desperately seeking help.
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Dalim and all other boat people live on very small islands in the haor, which is as big as 100 sq-km. Most of the time of the year, these people must use boats to do even their shortest errands. In winter, when the water recedes, they can grow some crops. At other times, they are either fishing or working in sand quarries at the nearby border or running tourist boats to earn their living.
Just as I feared what he was going to say, Dalim said, "The flood took away our homes two days ago. We do not have food or clothes. I could not even get my hands on my money in my home. I would not have called you if I was not in such a desperate situation."
Dalim's people have been residing in this water world for more than 150 years. Although water is the way of their lives, he says he or the oldest person in their village had never seen such a raging flood before.
"The water level just increased overnight so fast that we could barely save ourselves," Dalim said.
The cattle, chickens, ducks and dogs – their everyday part of village life – had all been taken away by the flood before they could realise what was happening.
"The water reached up to our tin roofs," Dalim said.
There are 120 families in three island villages in his vicinity. As the flood raged on, they all took shelter on their boats and saw how their tin-shed homes were being devoured by the waters.
The villagers made a tourist resort named "Haor Bilash" with bricks and a tin roof and some modern amenities. It went under the water as well. The structure is still there, but the windows and doors have been washed away.
The villagers later took shelter in nearby schools, mosques and hills near the border.
But most of them did not even have extra clothes or money.
I arranged for Dalim an immediate help last night. This morning I called him to check out how he is doing.
He was at a market to buy food for his family. "The water is receding now. But it is still raining. Our homes are still underwater and we are not sure when we can return there," he said.
People with limited resources are now sharing food with each other and waiting for help from outside as everything is scarce there.
Dalim shared with me the misery of the people of three villages there. But the massive haor is home to 46 villages. If you have been there, you can easily imagine that none of these villages has been spared from the flood's wrath.
