Flood in Sylhet may prevail at least a week, weather experts say

Sufferings of people living in Sylhet division is not going to end soon as the water level will continue to rise for next three days and the flood situation will prevail at least for seven days, according to weathermen.

Upstream Cherrapunji in Meghalaya has experienced around 2500 mm rainfall in last 72 hours, a record rainfall in 27 years. Coupled with the local rainfall in Sylhet division, this has worsened the situation, they said.

Heavy to very heavy rainfall will continue for next 48 hours in Sylhet division, and also in upstream adjoining states of India.

"If the rainfall continues for next 48 hours, the water level will continue to increase till Monday. After that we can expect the water level will recede," said Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan, executive engineer, flood forecasting and warning centre (FFWC) told The Daily Star.

"So this spell of flood will continue in Sylhet division at least for next seven days," he said.

If the rain continues as per the forecast, Arifuzzaman said, the water level in Sunamganj may increase more than one metre while in Sylhet at least 50 cm in next couple of days, he said.

He said, 407 mm rainfall was recorded in Maheshkhola, Moulvibazar, 375 mm recorded in Sunamganj, 268 mm recorded in Jaflang and more than 100 mm recorded in Rangpur, Netrokona and Kurigram.

But the worst of all, 972 mm rainfall was recorded in Cherrapunji in last 24 hours, he said.

Times of India reports that world's second wettest place, Cherrapunji in Meghalaya has logged a whopping 972mm rainfall between 8:30am of Thursday and 8:30am of Friday, the IMD stated. This is the third heaviest precipitation in this high altitude northeast paradise in 27 years.

Earlier, between 8:30am of June 14 and 8:30am of June 15 it received 811.6 mm rain. In the same period between Wednesday morning and Thursday morning, it received 700 mm of rainfall.

"All this waterflow is coming down through Sunamganj what making the situation worst," said Prof AKM Sailful Islam of the Institute of Water and Flood Management at the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology (Buet).

He said, he saw a forecast of around over 500 mm rainfall in the Sylhet region.

"If the rainfall continues, it will cross the highest level of water recorded in Sunamganj in next two days," he said.

The highest water level recorded in the Surma was 9.29 metre (from the mean sea level) while the current water level is 8.87 metre in Surma in Sunamganj.