by Naim-Ul-Karim
DHAKA, Jun 21 (NNN-XINHUA) – The floods in parts of Bangladesh’s north-eastern Sylhet region, due to the onrush of upstream waters, coupled with heavy downpours, have affected millions of people and displaced tens of thousands.
Sheikh Russel Hasan, deputy commissioner and district magistrate in Sylhet, told Xinhua yesterday that, “around one million people were affected by floods merely in the Sylhet district.”
He said, authorities have rushed teams of disaster response force to carry out rescue operation, distribute relief materials and supervise centres, where at least 20,000 people have taken shelter.
TV reports showed, wide areas of land are under water, in parts of the north-eastern region, where floods also caused widespread damage to habitation, crops, roads and highways.
Officials said, tens of thousands of homes in Sylhet’s neighbouring Sunamganj, Moulvibazar and Habiganj districts, have also been inundated and electricity has been cut.
The water level at most points of key Surma, Kushiyara, Manu, Dhalai, Kalni and Gowain rivers running through the districts, have burst their banks, and continued to flow above the danger level.
Bangladeshi soldiers were deployed to protect a flood affected power sub-station in Sylhet city. The army have been working to ensure uninterrupted power supply from the power sub-station that has been affected by the ongoing floods.
Leading English newspaper, The Financial Express, said yesterday that, the ongoing devastating floods have left nearly two million people marooned, in the north-eastern districts, while relentless rain threatens to worsen the situation.
There are, so far, no known injuries nor deaths to have occurred in the districts, as a result of the ongoing floods.
Millions of people in Bangladesh, criss-crossed by hundreds of rivers, suffer from flooding, as the low-lying country experiences seasonal floods every year, during the Jun-Sept monsoon, when rivers that feed into the Bay of Bengal burst their banks.
At least 10 people in separate landslides died, in camps of Rohingya refugees in Cox’s Bazar district, Wednesday, when incessant rains inundated many places.– NNN-XINHUA