Devastating deluge: Floods caused by torrential rains have swamped much of Bangladesh’s low-lying areas. — AFP
Floods wreaked more havoc in India’s northeast and neighbouring Bangladesh’s eastern region, raising this week’s total death toll to 30, officials and media reports said.
Rain stopped in many parts of Bangladesh yesterday and weather officials in Dhaka said the waters had started receding in some areas, but said the flooding would not be over for days.
In India’s Tripura state, eight more people died in the last 24 hours, raising the death toll to 19 since Monday, said a state disaster management official on condition of anonymity as he was not authorised to speak to media. Earlier, 11 people were reported dead.In Bangladesh, seven more people died in the last 24 hours, Dhaka-based Ekhon TV reported yesterday. Earlier, four deaths were reported in raging waters flooding downstream from India, and amid incessant rains in the country’s eastern region.
Bangladeshi non-government organisation BRAC said in a statement that up to three million people remained stranded as fast-moving water inundated vast areas of farmland, destroying livelihoods, homes and crops.
It said many remained without electricity, food or water. Other media reports said up to 4.5 million people have been affected in the delta nation of 170 million people. A number of charity groups have called for help, with a student group collecting dry food, cash, water and medicines at Dhaka University.
In the Indian state of Tripura, authorities said around 100,000 people took shelter in over 400 relief camps, as the floods affected 1.7 million people in eight districts of the state. Chief Minister Manik Saha undertook an aerial survey to assess the situation.
Liakath Ali, BRAC’s director of Climate Change, Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management, said these were the worst floods Bangladesh had seen in three decades.
“Entire villages, all of the families who lived in them, and everything they owned – homes, livestock, farmlands, fisheries – have been washed away. People had no time to save anything.
“There are people stranded across the country. We expect the situation to worsen in many places as rains continue,” he said.
New breaches on a flood protection embankment in the Gomti River in the eastern district of Cumilla inundated about 100 low-lying villages from Thursday midnight, Dhaka-based The Business Standard newspaper reported yesterday. Other districts including Noakhali, Feni and Chattogram were also hard hit.
Abed Ali, a senior relief official in Cumilla district, said residents had been asked to move to shelters, but were struggling to reach them in current conditions.
The military used helicopters to ferry relief materials and dry food to affected people yesterday, according to posts on its Facebook page. — AP
