“Everything I lost in the 1998 flood”, says Murshida of Sattala slum. The 35 years old lady came to Dhaka in 1999 after critical struggles with her life. She used to live a happy life at Matlob upazilla of Chandpur district with her family before appearance of devastating flood in 1998. Salma banu had 40 decimal of agricultural land, two cows and small house with a number of fruit trees. “The Meghna snatched and washed away all my assets and happiness and I could not save anything”, she added.
She also said, “I have not seen such destructive river erosion in my life.”. After loosing everything, her husband and she tried hard and soul to restart their life but they failed. Her husband could not manage any single work after flood and her son’s study was stopped.
They took shelter to a relative’s house. They spent all their savings to sustain their livelihoods. After six months. they finally migrated to Dhaka city with simply nothing with them and took shelter in Sattala slum at her husband’s cousin’s home.
“At the initial stage we suffered a lot but the sufferings still continue. There are many problems in this slum. We were far better in our villages”, she exclaimed.
As my husband is illiterate, he couldn’t manage anything but rickshaw pulling in Dhaka. She also take service job as household helper nearby Niketon residential area. After managing work they shifted from husband’s cousin’s home to another place of the slum at rent. But sufferings didn’t take her family rest. Again the devastating fire in slum took her all. She had a dream about her son that her son will be a literate human but the devastating fire washed away all her dreams. By using the burnt tin her family again built house at Sattala slum.
