he ongoing floods in the country’s north and middle regions have already caused about Tk 336 crore financial losses to the fish farmers in the five divisions affected, according to the Department of Fisheries. The DOF has estimated the losses in Rajshahi, Chattogram, Rangpur, Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions, said a DOF report updated on July 21. DOF officials told New Age that the losses would increase as the floods continued for the third consecutive week inundating the central and southern regions of the country. The floods have badly damaged at least 34,534 ponds, dighis and farms on 7,887.65 hectares of land, they said. They said that an estimated 17,287.69 tonnes of fishes and 31.96 crores of fish fries had already been washed away by the ongoing floods. Calculating the financial value of the losses, the DOF report mentioned that the lost fish was worth Tk 237.52 crore and the lost fish fries Tk 61.73 crore. Besides, the floods also damaged fish cultivation infrastructure causing an estimated financial loss of Tk 36.78 crore, the report said. Of the affected divisions, farmers in Chattogram incurred the highest losses, followed respectively by Mymensingh, Rangpur, Sylhet and Rajshahi. When asked, DOF deputy director for aquaculture Md Zillur Rahman told this daily that fish farmers were being advised to protect their fishes by using nets around their fishery projects. Farmers were being also told to shift their fishes to the safer water areas, he said. He tipped that fishes could also be preserved in cages made of net in floodwater. Fish fries should be preserved for farming after the floods,’ he said, adding that their field offices had been instructed to strengthen the fisheries conservation activities. Bangladesh has made a remarkable progress in fish production in the recent years and as a result the country has become one of the biggest fish producers in the world, according to the fisheries and livestock ministry. The officials said that the success of Bangladesh in fish production has been recognised globally. Currently, Bangladesh is ranked the first in hilsa production, third in producing fish in inland water bodies, fourth in tilapia production and fifth in aquaculture production, they said.
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