Over 72,000 fish farmers have suffered nearly Tk 500 crore loss during the flood that continued to wreak havoc in parts of Bangladesh until Thursday, two months after it began in the north on June 27. Though most of the rivers have fallen below their flood levels, except for the Padma and Meghna in central Bangladesh, low-lying areas of northern and central Bangladesh remained largely under water, preventing fish farming. Flooding of coastal region continued to drive dozens of families out of their homes and wash away new shrimp farms as seawater kept entering through embankment breaches into polders overrunning new land for a week until Thursday. The flood caused over Tk 479-crore loss to fish farmers in seven of the eight divisions,’ said Azizul Haque, deputy director of aquaculture at the department of fisheries. The estimate that the DoF provided excluded Khulna where shrimp farmers were facing the worst nightmare with an untimely and unexpected flooding that inundated parts of Satkhira and Khulna. Like flood loss estimates from other government offices such as the agriculture, the DoF estimate also greatly mismatched with reports prepared by its field offices. Over 31,000 tons of fish and fries were washed away from more than 91,000 fish farms in the country, the DoF said, adding that the flood-affected farms covered 17,232 hectares. Nearly 45 per cent of the fish farms were in Dhaka division while the second worst affected division was Barishal with 3,259 hectares of fish farms affected. The official estimate released by the DoF showed that in Rangpur the number of affected fish farms were 4,376, a third of what was actually reported by the divisional office of the fisheries authority. Faisal Azam, additional director, DoF, Rangpur, told New Age correspondent in Lalmonirhat that they counted 13,120 fish farms getting affected by the flood causing Tk 185-crore loss in eight districts. Fish farmers see in the underestimation of the loss, the government’s intention to deny responsibility as well as a refusal to help the affected farmers. The government has never stood by farmers in the past and it does not even have any idea about how many farmers are there in the country,’ said Bangladesh Fish Hatchery and Farm Owners Association president Sazzad Hosssain told New Age. He said that 80 per cent of fish farms were affected in the flood-affected area which covered 40 per cent of the country at the peak of the flood. Fish is still cultivated in low-lying areas in the country because it allows easy access to water to farmers having hardly any technological support. Bangladesh is one of the world’s leading inland fishing producers with 43 lakh tonnes produced a year, over half of it supplied through cultured fish, said Sazzad. Golam Mostafa, a farmer of Nouhali in Gangachara, Rangpur, saw all three of his fish farms wash away in the flood that ravaged the northern districts for over a month until early August. With the latest one, my loss from floods over the last four years reached Tk 32 lakh,’ said Mostafa, who made sure to include his name in the government list every year but without ever receiving any help. Anwar Hossain, a famed fish farmer in Rajarhat, Kurigram saw fish in a dozen of his farms wash away during the flood. I turned a beggar overnight,’ said Anwar, who never received any government help either. DoF’s Faisal said that they always asked for allocation to help farmers after every flood that hit the country over the last four years but did not receive anything in response from the government. Many people are set to call it a quit on fish farming,’ commented Moniruzzaman, a farmer of Goddimari of Hatibandha in Lalmonirhat, who lost Tk 26 lakh investment due to the deluge. Sazzad said that a crisis seemed inevitable in fish production as the flood damage came after the coronavirus crisis had already halved fish production. The crisis is likely to become visible in December or early next year when fish will be dear,’ said Sazzad. Satkhira’s Ashashuni union parisahd member Tarikul Awal said that seawater washed away shrimp farms in more than half of the total area in his union. There is so much water around that people cannot even dare to go see their farms lost in vast flooded land,’ said Tarikul. He said that dozens of people were living their houses everyday as 20,000 people got stranded in his union alone. The relief assistant the government sent was far less than the demand like elsewhere in the country and people struggled to cook amid flooding and rains. New Age correspondent in Barishal reported that the Kalabadar River devoured a government primary school at Charbogi Chowdhuripara of Sreepur in Mehendiganj. Bangladesh Meteorological Department withdrew the signal No 3 issued to four maritime ports as the sea calmed down on Thursday after the low over north bay weakened.