Swelling Padma halts ferry services

Road communications between the capital and the southern part of the country through Mawa-Keorakandi route snapped yesterday with ferry services suspended due to heavy current in the Padma.
Around 2,000 vehicles got stranded on both sides of the river, causing immense sufferings to thousands of passengers, reports our correspondent from Munshiganj.
Sazzad Hossain, duty officer of Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre, told The Daily Star that the water level suddenly rose as flood water from Assam was flowing in through the Brahmaputra which meets the Padma near Manikganj.
"However the water level in the Brahmaputra is falling. The situation would not last more than two days."
Initially, the Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Corporation stopped the operations of 14 ferries. But later, it found the tide intensifying and suspended the last one as well.
At Kobutorkhola channel, ferry movements already had come to a halt on Monday. The Louhojong-Hazra channel also was later declared unsafe for ferries, said Sirajul Haque, BIWTC manager at Mawa.
Every day, no less than 3,000 vehicles to and from the capital cross the river through Mawa-Keorakanda, sources said.
The Aricha-Daulatdia ferry services remained open as of 8:00pm yesterday, our Manikganj correspondent reports.
Our Jamalpur correspondent adds that most places of five upazilas in the district along the river Jamuna are inundated. Aman fields and habitats of around two lakh people have been marooned.
The people of the upazilas -- Islampur, Dewanganj, Melandah, Maderganj and Sarishabari -- face acute shortage of drinking water, food and fodder.