Third wave of devastating floods stalk Bangladesh

Dhaka, July 3 (IANS) Devastating floods have left large swaths of land in Bangladesh’s northeastern Sylhet division underwater, marking the third wave of flooding in less than a month in the region.

More than 1 million people in the northeastern Bangladesh districts including Sylhet and nearby Sunamganj and Moulvibazar were stranded due to extensive flooding after days of heavy rains, reported Xinhua news agency.

Sheikh Russel Hasan, deputy commissioner, and district magistrate in Sylhet said that the fresh spell of flood triggered by heavy rainfall submerged low-lying areas in parts of the Sylhet region.

“Some 800,000 people in Sylhet district are currently grappling with the third wave of flooding,” he said, adding that tens of thousands of people were left homeless in the low-lying northeastern parts of the country.

According to the official, prolonged torrential rains and runoff from upstream hilly regions on the Indian border caused the main rivers in the region to swell beyond their danger levels.

Water levels at 90 river stations monitored by the South Asian country’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Center (FFWC) have reportedly marked a rise while 19 stations recorded a fall.

FFWC executive engineer Sardar Udoy Raihan forecasted the flood situation in the Sylhet region will be prolonged as almost the entire country experienced heavy rainfall triggered by active monsoon.

Sylhet reportedly recorded 294 mm of rainfall from 6.00 a.m. Monday through 6.00 a.m. on Tuesday. “If the rainfall increases, the flooding will worsen in Sylhet. It is already raining in Sylhet. The rivers are flowing over their warning levels,” said Deepak Ranjan Das, executive engineer of the Sylhet Water Development Board, according to a media report. Officials said there are so far no known injuries or deaths to have occurred in the districts as a result of the ongoing floods.

Sylhet additional deputy commissioner Mohammad Mubarak Hossain said people are coming to the shelters. They are distributing relief and aid to those affected.

Millions of people in Bangladesh, criss-crossed by hundreds of rivers, suffer from flooding as the low-lying country experiences seasonal floods every year during the June-September monsoon when rivers that feed into the Bay of Bengal burst their banks.

Last month, flash floods displaced more than 2 million people during two rounds of flooding in the region, affecting hundreds of areas and causing untold suffering to the dwellers.

–IANS

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