Monsoon rain on Monday swept the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, forcing thousands of city residents to live on the roofs of buildings in submerged residential neighbourhoods, and raising the national flood death toll in Bangladesh to 93, officials said.
Rescue workers said more than 10 000 residents fled their homes as the swirling waters of the Turag and Sitalakhya rivers encircling Dhaka deluged the low-lying suburbs of the city.
More than four million people in rain-soaked villages and towns in northern and central Bangladesh were displaced from their homes and many others stranded on small hamlets surrounded by water as monsoon floods gripped the country for more than a week.
At least 60 people were missing in the floods, said to be the worst in 16 years. The raging waters have devastated more than a quarter of the flat alluvial countryside, triggering mudslides.
Three more deaths from drowning were reported from the worst-affected northeastern Sylhet province and another person was killed near Dhaka under a collapsing mud brick wall, pushing the overnight death toll of 89 to 93.
Aid workers with United Nations agencies distributed high-energy biscuits and water purification tablets among 15 000 people hit hardest by the floods in the northern Rangpur region, where swollen rivers were showing signs of receding from soggy villages, wrecked homes and damaged roads.
But flood waters from upstream in the north were inundating areas in the central districts, including Dhaka, which had been cut off from the southern region due to serious disruptions in ferry services on the overflowing Meghna river.
Disaster management officials said the situation remained grave in the flood-stricken districts, but was under control. The government deployed more than 70 senior officials to supervise rescue and relief operations.
In Sylhet province nearly a million people were sheltered in schools and public halls that had been turned into relief camps.
Some families in Sunamganj district who had left the shelters for their villages were, however, forced to turn back following renewed downpours over the weekend. The tea-growing Sunamganj district is among the worst-hit areas in the Sylhet region.
Early reports said the torrential monsoon rains throughout the week, which caused swollen rivers to overflow, sparked Bangladesh’s worst flooding since 1988.
Officials also said water gushing down the rivers from upstream across the border in India inundated tens of thousands of hectares of rice paddies and thousands of kilometers of roads in at least 36 out of 64 administrative districts, which cover more than a quarter of the country.
India and Bangladesh share more than 50 rivers, including the Ganges and the Brahmaputra. Many of them have flowed over the danger mark during the past week.
At least 19 people were killed and thousands made homeless in flash floods set off by monsoon showers in June.
Seasonal floods in Bangladesh every year cause huge financial losses to a country plagued by endemic poverty.
Flood havoc in India
Meanwhile, incessant rains lashed northeastern India on Monday, causing floods and displacing millions, while other parts of the country were beginning to suffer from drought.
At last count the death toll from the flood was 68 in Assam and 128 in Bihar, according to the UNI news agency. But the numbers could be much higher, as there was little information from remote areas.
In three districts of Assam, Indian airforce helicopters were rescuing marooned villagers. Navy speedboats were delivering food, clean water and medicines to people trapped on embankments.
More than 230 animals have drowned in the state’s Orang National Park since the flooding began a week ago, New Delhi Television reported. Larger animals like the endangered one-horned rhino, forced to flee to higher ground, were being shot dead by poachers.
On Monday, forest officials recovered the carcass of a seven-month-old rhino calf. Other animal victims included deer, wild pigs and buffaloes.
Flood waters in northeastern India have submerged road and rail links and destroyed telephone lines. Health workers have warned of the threat of waterborne diseases when the water recedes. — Sapa-DPA