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DHAKA, July 6: Nearly 100,000 Bangladeshis have fled their homes after heavy rains and floodwaters from neighbouring India inundated bordering northern and southeastern districts, officials said on Saturday.
Weather officials said most of the tributaries of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers burst their banks flooding large areas of several districts.
Bangladesh is a country criss-crossed by more than 150 rivers, many flowing from India.
“The rapidly rising water in the Teesta river in northern Rangpur district have flooded Gangachara and Kaunia upazillas (sub-districts),” Rangpur district administrator Monirul Islam told Reuters.
He said about 20,000 villagers in the two sub-districts fled their flooded homes for higher ground, and that many were perched on roofs of partially submerged buildings.
But Islam said the situation had improved slightly after rains stopped on Friday night.
In Sirajgonj, at least 40,000 people were made homeless after the overflowing Jamuna river flooded 16 villages in the northern district, relief officials said.
Weather officials said 200 millimetres of rains were recorded in Sirajgonj district in 72 hours ending on Saturday morning.
Mostafa Kamal Haider, administrator of southeastern Noakhali district said half a million people had been affected by floods, triggered by heavy rains over the past three days.
He said crops, including rice, in 50,000 hectares had been damaged.
More rain is expected in the next few days as the monsoon season continues its full fury across Bangladesh, said weather department officer Asadur Rahman.
At least eight people were killed in a mud slide caused by heavy rain in Rangpur and southeastern Cox’s Bazar last week.
Bangladesh’s worst floods in 1988 soaked two-thirds of the country for three months and killed more than 3,500 people, officials said.—Reuters
THREE RIVERS BURST BANKS: Hundreds of low-lying villages in Bangladesh are threatened after three major rivers burst their banks prompting police and rescue workers to brace for a new round of monsoon flooding.
“Every precautionary measure for the safety of the people living in the flood prone areas is being taken as more showers have been forecast for the weekend,” said Selim Bhuiyan, a flood expert.
The country’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said heavy monsoons over the past two days and mountain torrents from across the Indian border swelled the Brahmaputra, the Meghna and the Ganges rivers.
Floods swept away the homes of more than 500 families and forced 300 additional families to flee villages in the northern Sirajganj district.
Flood water also washed away embankments, and bridges, officials said.
About 800 buses and trucks have been stranded on a highway near Dhaka since Friday after rains destroyed a bridge, the daily Bangladesh Observer said.
This is the second outbreak of monsoon flooding to hit the country in a month.—Reuters/dpa
