Donors put Bangladesh flood damage at $2.2 billion

The World Bank and Asian Development Bank said Sunday recent floods in Bangladesh had caused 2.2 billion dollars worth of damage.
The two donor banks announced the finding after they sent a joint mission to the flood-ravaged South Asian country earlier this month to carry out a damage and needs assessment.
"The 2004 floods are likely to be as devastating as the 1998 floods in many ways and the mission's preliminary estimates show that total damage and output losses is about 2.2 billion dollars," said Christine Wallich, World Bank country representative in Bangladesh.
The Bangladeshi government had said earlier the latest flooding caused 6.6 billion dollars in damage to property and infrastructure.
Finance and Planning Minister Saifur Rahman described the report as "incomplete" as it did not include the overall damage caused by the recent flood and the countrywide downpour, official news agency BSS reports.
The joint mission, however, admitted the assessment was partial since it has visited only 10 districts to assess the damage.
The multilateral lending agencies also put forward a proposal for rehabilitation schemes consisting three phases including short- to long-term programmes.
At least 700 people died during the flooding in July and August and millions were left stranded or forced to flee their homes.
The inundation was the heaviest since Bangladesh's worst-ever flooding in 1998. More heavy rain two weeks ago caused more flooding and claimed at least 18 more lives.
Experts say the post-flood period can be more dangerous than the floods due to threat of disease and lack of food where crops have been ruined.
Earlier this month, WFP's Bangladesh country representative Douglas Casson Coutts said the plight of millions of flood victims had been overshadowed by the Darfur crisis in Sudan.
The United Nations has also spoken out, describing the situation in rural areas as a "quiet disaster".
Country representative Jorgen Lissner asked donors not to forget Bangladesh just because dramatic television pictures had stopped.