Flood affects over 3 lakh
Floods caused by the rising water in the Teesta, Surma, Brahmaputra and several other rivers have marooned and forced thousands of people to leave their homes in the north and northeastern regions of the country.
The simultaneous rise of the water levels of major rivers may worsen the flood situation in Kurigram, Jamalpur, Bogra, Sirajganj, Rajbari, Manikganj and Munsiganj districts in the next 48 hours, according to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre Report of the Water Development Board.
The onrush of upstream water from across the border and heavy rainfall have been identified as the reasons for flood.
Two people reportedly went missing in two incidents, as their water vessels capsized amid floodwater current in Sunamganj district where water from the Surma, Cholti, Patli and Jadukata rivers affected more than one lakh people.
Heavy rains and rising river water flooded Nabinagar village in Sunamganj sadar upazila, said Harun-ur-Rashid Chowdhury, officer-in-charge of Sunamganj Police Station.
Sarbat Ali, 14, who was sailing a makeshift raft to reach the main road from his house, went missing when the raft capsized in the rough current of the floodwater, the OC said.
Fisherman Lony Das, 50, a resident of Moloysree village of Dharampasa upazila, also went missing yesterday when a boat capsized in the Dharam haor. Lony was fishing in the haor at the time, said Bayes Alam, OC of Dharampasa police.
An official of the WDB, Sunamganj, said the water level of the Surma river crossed the danger level at different points due to the onrush of upstream water for more than a week.
The danger level is 8.25m but the river was flowing at 8.90m yesterday. The rainfall was measured at 115cm, said Anwar Hosain, of the WDB.
The Teesta, Dharla, Brahmaputra and Jamuna rivers are also flowing above the danger mark at different points in Nilphamari, Lalmonirhat, Gaibandha, Kurigram, Jamalpur and Bogra districts, inundating low lying areas and affecting more than two lakh people.
The Teesta river in Dimla and Jaldhaka upazila of Nilpharmari has been swelling fast as India opened all the 52 gates of its Gojaldoba barrage to release the excess water from heavy rain in its territories, said Mostafizur Rahman, executive engineer of the WDB, Dhalia division in Nilphamari.
Nurul Islam, 55, a villager at Kutibari village in Lalmonirhat, said affected people had taken shelter on government roads, leaving their houses that had gone under six feet floodwater.
Ninety-year-old Omar Ali had lived in his flooded house in Shanyashi village of Halokhana union in Kurigram Sadar upazila for five days, but as the water continued to increase, he and other family members had to take shelter on the flood-control embankment yesterday.
In many districts, relief materials are not sufficient. Flood-affected people in some areas complained of not receiving relief at all.
Kurigram's Omar Ali complained that none went to prepare a list of affected people in their area.
Lalmonirhat District Relief and Rehabilitation Officer Idris Ali said the authorities were distributing rice, flattened rice, molasses and puffed rice among flood-affected people but those were not sufficient.
Around 8,000 people in Chinaduli union parishad under Islampur upazila of Jamalpur are affected by floods, many of them didn't get dry foods, said Abdus Salam, chairman of Chinaduli union.
The relief materials distributed by the district administration were too inadequate to support them, he added.
Jamalpur district relief and rehabilitation office claimed that Tk 50,000 and 35 tonnes of rice were allocated for flood-hit people in Islampur and Tk. 50,000 and 22 tonnes of rice for Dewanganj upazila of the district.
In several districts, Aman paddy fields, saplings and seed beds have been flooded.
Seed-beds and paddy and vegetable fields will be damaged if flood water stays there longer, said Rafiqul Islam, deputy director of the Department of Agricultural Extension in Jamalpur where 85 hectares of seed-beds, 153 hectares Aus paddy and 80 hectares of vegetable fields were flooded.
Classes in more than 200 schools have been suspended in the flood hit areas.
However, the local management and guardians in Bogra took an alternative initiative to continue their children's education, said Rafiqul Alam, upazila primary education officer of Shariakandi upazila, Bogra.
Shunil Kumar, a student of class-V of Dakkhin Dharaborsha Government Primary School in the upazila, said children had been attending classes at the homestead of a guardian near the school since floodwater entered the premises of the institution.
In many districts, special medical teams have been formed to provide treatment to flood victims.
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