DHAKA: At least 59 people, including six women and 12 children, have died in the devastating floods which affected more than five million people in 11 districts of Bangladesh, officials announced on Saturday.
The Disaster Management and Relief Ministry, while giving out updates on the flood situation, said the highest deaths were reported from Cumilla and Feni districts, both adjoining the border with Tripura in India on the northeast side, with 14 and 23 deaths respectively.
Monsoon rainfall-triggered floods in deltaic Bangladesh and upstream Indian regions have wreaked havoc in the country for about two weeks resulting in deaths and displacement of humans and cattle, and loss of property posing a huge administrative challenge to the newly installed interim government amid a political transition.
Bangladesh is crisscrossed by more than 200 rivers, 54 of them being trans-boundary rivers with upper riparian India, in four major basins. A depression (a system that brings in copious rainfall) in the Bay of Bengal last week had led to the current deluge with rivers in two basins – the north-eastern Meghna Basin and south-western Chattrogram Hills Basin – witnessing widespread flooding.
“As many as 54,57,702 people have been affected by the flood in 504 unions and municipalities across the 11 districts. About 0.7 million families remained stranded in the flood currently while nearly 0.4 million people are staying at 3,928 shelter centres,” state-run news agency, the Bangladesh Sangbad Sangtha (BSS), said quoting the Disaster Management and Relief Ministry officials.
A total of 36,139 cattle were also given shelter there, it said adding, as the situation improves by the day, people are returning home even as communication systems have become normal in flood-affected districts.
Weather experts had said that apart from the torrential rains, the overflowing rivers, El Nino and climate change phenomenon were the factors responsible for widespread flooding in the country.
PTI