Bangladeshi joy at fish bonanza

For many people in Chandpur, fish is now on the menu

Flooding in Bangladesh has brought misery to millions, but for a group of villagers in southern Chandpur district it has proved something of a bonanza.

Fish farms have overflowed, allowing locals to catch nutritious delicacies normally way beyond their budget.

"We are catching fish round the clock. It's like a festival," one resident, Alam Palash, told AFP news agency.

"It is so easy to catch the escaped fish that on Sunday I caught around 40kg with my bare hands."

The prospect of free fish for all was so exciting that within a matter of hours crowds were descending around flooded streams and ponds, locals say.

Some people could barely carry their catch home.

Important protein

Although expensive in a country where millions of people earn less than a dollar a day, fish is eaten regularly in Bangladesh and is an important source of protein.

Officials say that so many fish escaped in Chandpur that many were left to rot on dry land once flood waters started to recede.

They say that it is important their carcasses are removed, because they could soon become a health hazard.

Police have been put on alert to try and re-capture some of the escaped fish, so that they can be returned to the 13,000 fish farms in the Chandpur area.

Owners of the farms put estimated losses at millions of dollars.

It is not just fish farmers who have been hard hit in the floods.

Aid agencies say that millions of dollars worth of rice crops have also been lost in the worst flooding the country has experienced since 1998.