DHAKA: Floods triggered by heavy seasonal rains and onrush of water from hills have claimed nearly 200 lives in Bangladesh since June 30.
According to the daily flood report of the country’s Health Emergency Operation Centre and Control Room on Monday, the floods have killed 188 people in 33 (out of 64) districts. Most victims have drowned but some died in snake bites and lightning in the flood-hit areas, showed the report. According to another daily disaster situation report prepared by the country’s National Disaster Response Coordination Center (NDRCC) under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, at least 5.45 million people have been affected by the floods while thousands of families were forced to flee home.
TV reports showed the floods caused widespread damage to habitation, crops, roads and highways across vast swathes of the country. The latest government report, however, said the situation is now improving in most of the districts with water levels in many rivers receding. 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 June-September monsoon when rivers that feed into the Bay of Bengal burst their banks. – Agencies
