Bangladesh reports 44 deaths due to floods; capital Dhaka deluged

At least 44 people have died in flood and landslide incidents in a week, officials said Sunday, even as rivers remained above danger level, leading to displacement of over 2.5 lakh families across Bangladesh.

Overnight torrential rains — 76 mm from 12 midnight till 6 am — inundated several areas and paralysed life in capital, Dhaka, even as the government deployed army troops alongside navy and air force personnel to carry out relief operations in seven worst-hit districts along with local humanitarian agencies.

“Since July 5, officially 44 flood-related deaths were recorded until Saturday evening. We estimate that some 2,67,000 families have been affected so far,” a Disaster Management Ministry spokesman said here.

Several of the casualties were caused by landslides while most others either drowned or were washed away due to floods and overflowing rivers, the spokesperson said.

Nearly 44,457 deluge displaced people took refuge at over 1,100 makeshift flood shelters in affected areas, mostly in northeastern and southeastern regions. “The deluge marooned members of an estimated 2,67,918 families in the affected areas,” the official said.

Bangladesh has divided the lower riparian deltaic country, criss-crossed by 1,415 rivers, in four major basins. The onrush of waters from the upstream, coupled with heavy monsoon rains until Saturday, inflated rivers in the northeastern Meghna Basin and southeastern Hill Basin.

On Sunday, the state-run Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) said larger parts of several north and north-western districts in the major Brahmaputra Basin are likely to be exposed to floods, while the situation in the northeastern and northwestern region could deteriorate further.

As of Sunday, seven out of the 45 river monitoring stations operated by FFWC in greater Meghna and South Eastern hill basins reported the river waters exceeded their danger levels.

The Centre feared several more stations are likely to witness their danger marks to be crossed, resulting in further flooding in low-lying areas of the regions.

“During the next 24 to 48 hours, heavy to very heavy rainfall is forecast over the (north-eastern) Sylhet, (north-western) Rangpur and (northern) Mymensingh divisions of Bangladesh and the adjoining Indian states of Meghalaya, Assam, and West Bengal,” the FFWC bulletin at 9 am on Sunday said.

Earlier in the week, seven Rohingya children and one of their teachers died on July 8 in the worst single incident of landslides this year in the world’s largest refugee camp in southeastern Cox’s Bazar.

Since Friday, the government has called out the army, navy and air force to carry out relief operations in seven worst-hit districts. Local NGOs, too are pitching in with help as flood-displaced people found it difficult to operate kitchens in inundated homesteads.

“Many people took refuge on rooftops of their inundated homesteads or living on roads with plastic sheets sheltering them amid rains… Several health complexes are inundated, making it nearly impossible to render medical care,” said a health official in flood-hit Moulvibazar in northeastern Bangladesh.

Meanwhile, the incessant rainfall since Saturday evening paralysed life in large parts of Dhaka and major southeastern port city of Chattogram, inundating thoroughfares and many homesteads, keeping vehicles off or leaving them stranded on the roads and forcing people to stay indoors.

News portal The Daily Star said the Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded 76 millimetres of rainfall in the capital between midnight and 6:00 am Sunday.

The relentless downpour overwhelmed the city’s drainage infrastructure, creating an urban deluge that brought the normal rhythm of city life to a grinding halt, it said in a report.

“The overnight rain inundated my house compound and roads in the neighbourhood,” Nasrin Ahmed, a resident in Dhaka’s Mirpur area said.

Flooding in between July to September, however, is a regular phenomenon in Bangladesh as the monsoon peak triggers heavy rainfall, onrush of waters from upper riparian Indian regions, turbulent sea and high tides in Bay in Bengal obstructing recession of river waters.