Food and Disaster Manage-ment Minister Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf has said a UN team is to arrive today (Friday) to assess the extent of damage before pursuing any international help for the post-flood rehabilitation programme. The high profile team is scheduled to come today in connection with a call Prime Minister (PM) Khaleda Zia made during a public meeting in a flood-affected area a few days ago. In her address at the meeting the PM said that the government alone might not be able recoup the losses of the floods, the minister told newsmen Thursday at the Dhaka Reporters Unity. "We have sufficient relief materials for the 20 million (2.0 crore) to 30 million affected people but we need a huge amount of money for the post-flood rehabilitation programme," he added in support of the government decision not to seek just relief materials from the international community. He said allocation for the disaster management for this fiscal is all-time high with government keeping between Tk 3.0 million and Tk 4.0 billion under a 'contingency plan'. According to the minister, the country is under threat of incurring loss between Tk 300 billion and Tk 400 billion due to the devastating floods that have hit the country crossing the intensity of the 1998 floods. "The country will seek assistance to the international community in large scale as only relief materials will not be sufficient to recover such a huge damage," he said. Response from the international donors and friendly countries is already positive. A project under the banner of the World Food Programme has already been drawn out to feed 5.0 million people until March next year with 120,000 tonnes of food, he added. To a query, he said the country has no mechanism to forecast such floods before 24 hours. Even developed countries have no technology of forecasting flood one month earlier, he said quoting USAID officials. "Only India can help Bangladesh with realistic data about an imminent flood much before", he said adding, "but the data are available here from our neighbouring country only a week before such a calamity." To another query, Kamal Ibne Yusuf ruled out oppositions' allegation of mismanagement in distribution of relief materials. He said the government has a sound relief management committee comprising joint secretaries, local government bodies, people's representatives and about 33,000 volunteers that is now working in 4,500 unions and thousands of flood-affected villages. The government has distributed 1.80 million tonnes of food, cash worth Tk 38.48 million, Tk 5.90 million for house building, 3,359 bundles of CI sheet, 6,710 tins of biscuit, Tk 1.80 million for saree and lungi in the 51 affected districts until Wednesday, he added.
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