Disaster! Floods kill 21 in Bangladesh

At least 21 people have been killed after monsoon floods hit most of northern Bangladesh, marooning tens of thousands in submerged homes or temporary shelters, officials said on Monday.

“The victims drowned or died of snake bites in remote villages in flood-affected districts,’’ Naznin Shamima, an official at the Disaster Management Department told DPA.

Rescuers moved as many as 5,000 people out of the more than 600,000 affected to temporary shelters as rivers rose in 12 administrative districts, she said.

The Bangladesh Water Development Board warned that flooding might engulf more areas downstream as a result of heavy rain in neighbouring Indian hills.

The board’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Center said water levels in three major trans-boundary rivers – the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna had gone up in the last couple of days.

Downstream rivers and tributaries might swell further, with more rain in the forecast, the FFWC said.

“The flood situation in the northern parts of the country will keep worsening as the water level may go 60 cm to 70 cm further up in the next 72 hours (ending Aug. 16),” the FFWC said.

Train services between Dhaka and five northern districts Dinajpur, Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Thakurgaon and Panchagarh were suspended after railway tracks went under water, another official said.

“The onrush of waters washed away soil and stones from the rail tracks in many places causing suspension of the services,” Sabah Ahmed, a General Manager of the railway, said.

Television footage also showed some people moving to safer places, along with boatloads of cattle and utensils, through chest-deep water on the roads. NAN/Punch