At least 32 people have been killed in Bangladesh since the end of last week after monsoon rains caused catastrophic flooding in the northeastern Sylhet district, leaving a quarter of its population of 15 million trapped between floodwaters. “The floods are the worst in 122 years in the Sylhet area,” Atiqul Haque, director general of Bangladesh’s Disaster Management Department, told Reuters, adding that 12 areas in the north and northeast had been flooded. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register “Rescue and relief operations have intensified, with army and navy officials reaching out to more people trapped in the floodwaters,” Huck said. Large areas of entire settlements were submerged under turbulent brown waters as military personnel by boat arrived with drinking water and food for the people housed on the upper floors of the buildings, local television footage showed. Government authorities are trying to deliver 1,720 tonnes of rice and 58,000 packages of dry food to flood-affected communities, in addition to water purification tablets and medicines.
AROUND HILLS
The situation in Bangladesh has been aggravated by water collapsing from the surrounding hills of India’s Meghalaya state, including some of the wetter areas of the world such as Mawsynram and Cherrapunji, which fell more than 970 millimeters (38 inches) each. on Sunday, according to government figures. Megalaya and neighboring Assam received 134% more rainfall than average in June, according to data compiled by India’s state meteorological department. People move a boat in a flooded area during an extensive flood in the northeastern part of the country, in Sylhet, Bangladesh, June 19, 2022. REUTERS / Stringer read more In Bangladesh, some 300,000 people have been evacuated to shelters in Sylhet, but more than four million people are stranded near their homes. “The situation is still worrying,” Mohammad Mossaraf Hussein, Sylhet’s chief administrator, told Reuters by telephone. “We are stepping up our efforts by providing relief materials. Right now, the main challenge is to reach out to everyone and ensure the availability of drinking water.” Khalilur Rahman, a resident of Sylhet’s Sunamganj district, said floodwaters had flooded the ground floor of his two-story house. “I have never seen such floods in my life,” Rahman, 43, told Reuters by telephone, adding that there had been no electricity since the heavy rains began on Thursday night. “Dry food is over, there is no drinking water.” In Assam, India, where at least 26 people have been killed since heavy rains began about a fortnight ago, floodwaters have begun to recede, the state government has said. However, 4.5 million people were forced to flee their homes, with about 220,000 living in government-run makeshift shelters. More than one million hectares of agricultural land have been flooded. “The overall flood situation is improving,” Assam Pijos Khazarika, Minister of Water Resources, told Reuters. “Now the biggest challenge is to reach the displaced and provide them with relief materials.” South Asia’s neighbors have been experiencing increasingly extreme weather in recent years, causing massive damage, and environmentalists warn that climate change could lead to more disaster, especially in densely populated Bangladesh. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.com Register Writes Devjyot Ghoshal. Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan and Ed Osmond Our role models: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
