People are seen next to temporary shelters on the embankment of the river Brahmaputra in the flooded area in Gaibandha. — Reuters photo
DHAKA: Rain-swollen rivers in Bangladesh broke through at least four embankments, submerging dozens of villages and doubling the number of people fleeing their homes overnight to 400,000 in one of the worst floods in recent years, officials said yesterday.
Heavy rains and overflowing rivers have swamped 23 districts in northern and northwestern Bangladesh, officials said.
At least 30 people have been killed since the floods began last week.
“The government has opened more than 1,000 temporary shelters but due to deep waters and lack of communications, many people aren’t able to reach them,” Raihana Islam, an official in the flood-afflicted district of Bogra, told Reuters.
Islam said scores of people had instead camped on embankments, railway lines and highways, where traffic has come to a standstill.
Aside from concern over crops, authorities are also worried that rising flood waters could take a toll on livestock.
South Asia receives monsoon rains between June and October that often lead to floods later in the season, but the intensity of the deluge in Bangladesh is uncommon.
“The severity of the flood of this year is worse compared to recent years,” Ariful Islam, an executive engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board, said.
The floods worsened after three embankments on the Brahmaputra river, which flows down from the Himalayas, through northeastern India and into Bangladesh, gave way late on Thursday, said Mohammad Moniruzzaman, an official in the federal agriculture ministry.
“The onrush of water submerged a vast area along with several dozen villages,” he told Reuters. — Reuters