PABNA, Jan 4: Cold wave and dense fog make daily activities in the district standstill. The sun has not been visible for the last few days.
According to field sources, the cold wave is sweeping with dense fog over the northern districts including Pabna.
For the last few days, a paralysed normal life has been prevailing in the district, hitting hard the poorer section especially.
The cold is felt severely as it is accompanied by chilly wind and dense fog, said a meteorologist of Bangladesh Meteorological Department-Iswardi Upazila of the district.
People living in the open and public spaces like bus stands and railway stations, daily-labourers and slum-dwellers are most vulnerable to the cold wave as they cannot afford warm clothes.
Overall temperature may slightly rise and will last for three/four days, said the official, adding that another spell of cold wave may sweep through the country at that time.
The cold spell has triggered cold-related diseases including pneumonia, asthma and respiratory complications in northern districts.
Civil Surgeon Dr Manisar Chowdhury said, the number of pneumonia and diarrhoeal patients, mostly elderly people and children, continues to increase due to the bone-chilling cold wave in the sub-Himalayan region in the last week.
A health practitioner in the town Dr Ram Dulal Bhowmick informed, the number of patients with cough, asthma and other cold-related diseases has marked a sharp rise in hospitals and clinics.
The district has experienced the lowest temperature of this winter season on Tuesday as mercury fell down to 12.05 degrees Celsius, said Nazmul Haque, observer of the weather office at Ishwardi
Thick fog was seen at places over the river basins and light to moderate fog elsewhere during midnight till morning, he added.
Farm labourers, day-labourers, rickshaw peddlers and people of low income group who mainly work outside their houses were compelled to leave their works because of extreme cold.
The dense fog has also been disrupting road and riverine communications for the last few days.
Extreme cold and lack of sunlight is likely to hamper natural growth of crops. But the environment will be favourable for wheat cultivation, said Dr. Saiful Alm, deputy director of the Department of Agriculture Extension- Pabna.
Less cash crop production may result in unemployment of agro-labourers and marginal farmers.
So far, no non-government organizations have distributed winter clothes among the poor and the needy.
