21 July, 2020, Rongpur, Bangladesh - Batashi Begum, 40, hails from Gobindpur of Haldia union under Shaghata upazila in Gaibandha district. Her home has been inundated with flood water, forcing to send her children to live with their relatives. Even their farmland, tubewell and latrine were run over by the floods, with snakes often lurking in the flood water inside their house. She was forced to tie up the domestic animals in their houses, but they still remain waist-deep submerged in flood water. Even their farmland, consisting of jute harvest, became submerged and rendered useless, while the jute seeds they salvaged and brought back to the house were also too late to be of any use. Although she received a silo from UN Food and Agriculture Organization, she wished she had received it before the floods arrived. But she believes it is still of many use and can salvage many things for her. On 4 July a high probability of severe flooding was forecast for mid-July along the Jamuna River in Bangladesh, with one-third of the area's total population likely to be affected. That warning was the trigger for the UN to immediately release $5.2 million from the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF) to help communities urgently prepare and protect themselves.
The money went to three participating agencies ? the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) to enable them to prepare to distribute cash, livestock feed, storage drums, and hygiene, dignity and health kits.