“It is difficult to see the yield spoil before our eyes. Whatever we have left and can collect is satisfying to some extent,” says Abul Kashem, a farmer.

More than 90 per cent of arable land in Jingabuta Haor was flooded when the onrush of water from the Dhanu river broke down the Haizda embankment in Mohanganj Upazilla, Netrokona.

A future shortage of food grain will lead to a loss of business by local merchants, as well as a potential rise in the price of grain as imports are brought in from surrounding areas.

Without land for grazing and food to feed the cattle, local farmers and cattle farms may also be forced to sell off the cows before Eid-ul-Azha, depriving them of the good prices such livestock usually fetch at the annual Muslim festival.

While the villagers and authorities try to explain how their lives have been turned upside down, at least one farmer, Mustafa, has an explanation for it all. “It is God’s wish, and there is nothing we can do.”