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Floods hit the country

Water slowly entering into Dhaka!


Published : 24 Jul 2020 10:25 PM | Updated : 07 Sep 2020 07:19 PM

The flood continued devouring vast crop lands, human habitats and tress washing away fish ponds and collapsing roads and water communications.

Besides, moderate to heavy intermittent showers coupled with onrush of upstream water deteriorated the overall flood situation in north, northeast, northwest and mid districts, mounting miseries to the marooned people.

Apart from these, strong current due to rough weather continued disrupting ferry services on two major routes on the River Padma on Saturday, inflicting miseries to passengers and truckers, according to BIWTA.

Thousands of passengers to and from the south and south-western districts faced ordeal from early Friday to cross the Paturia-Daulatdia and the Shimulia-Kathalbari river routes.

Hundred of vehicles were seen stuck in the both ferry ghats till filing of this report on Friday afternonn.

Due to the disruption, long tailbacks were formed at the ghat area, an on duty police official of Mawa River Police outpost said. The string current also stopped plying of small launches in the rivers.

Arifuzzaman Bhuiyan, executive engineer at FFWC told Bangladesh Post that the Balu River at Demra might overflow its danger mark by Friday further worsening the flooding as 20 rivers flowed above their danger marks at 30 places across the country.

Parts of Dhaka–Dohar road went under water because of the steady rise of Padma at Bhagyakul. FFWC warned that parts of eastern such as Badda and Satarkul might go under water by Friday.

The Brahmaputra River might continue to rise until Sunday as the FFWC recorded extremely heavy rains across north and parts of south-eastern Bangladesh.

Along with the floods, people have been affected by river erosion. They are suffering from lack of food and clean water. There is also a crisis of cattle feed.

The 600-meter section of the Sankardaha Dam at Gangachara in Rangpur has collapsed into the Teesta. The erosion of the Bangali river continues at Sariakandi in Bogra. Part of a bridge at Sarishabari in Jamalpur has been washed away.

Although some relief items have been distributed among the flood-affected areas of the country, but they are far from adequate.

People are spending their days in extreme hardship due to the terrible floods. Houses, crop lands and other things have been damaged. The ongoing river bank and dam work of the Water Development Board (WDB) has been washed away.

This has caused crop damage of around Tk 349 crore. WDB has completed 297 projects in the last financial year. Of these, 109.92 km of dams are under construction at 670 places. But due to the floods, 495.02 km of embankments and river banks have been washed away in 1,938 places in 46 districts.

Meanwhile, 288 km of regional highways and inter-district roads have been severely damaged by the floods so far. This information has been found in the relevant sources.

The floods have so far damaged WDB's several assets. The organization has already identified the risky areas. When the flood is over, the dams will be built. The Ministry of Water Resources has given instructions to all concerned.

However, the floods have so far severely damaged 288 km of regional highways and inter-district roads. Somewhere the road is still under water. Somewhere it has been washed away. Traffic on these roads has been stopped.

Several roads in Jamalpur and Sunamganj have damaged the most. Although no part of the main six of the country's 22 national highways have been submerged, they are under threat due to rising flood waters along the roads. The information was obtained from the flood situation center of the Roads and Highways Department (RHD).

According to RHD officials, 288 km of 82 roads in the RHD have been damaged. Once the water recedes, it will be understood how much money will be spent on repairs.

The ministry for natural disasters has estimated that a third of the country is already underwater, with heavy rains set to continue until the end of July.

However, the country’s highest rainfall of 250mm in the 24 hours until 900am Thursday was recorded at Gaibandha as 20 rivers flowed above their danger levels at 30 places.

The FFWC already warned that the flood might continue through the second week of August as it already affected more than three million in 21 districts.

Bangladesh Meteorological Department predicted light to moderate rains in most of the places in Mymesingh, Sylhet, Barishal and Chattogram divisions until Friday morning.