Most of the rivers that caused flash flooding over the last few days fell below their danger marks, revealing a trail of destruction along its course covering villages, cropland and highways.
While the flood situation improved in the Feni district, the districts of Noakhali and Cumilla saw their situation deteriorate, sending more people to flood shelters and leaving hundreds of thousands more stranded.
Meteorologists said that floodwater receded rather slowly on Monday caused by a persistent low over southern Bangladesh and its adjacent areas in India that brought heavy rain along the coast and the ocean to swell. The maritime ports have been asked to hoist signal number three.
Forecasters warned that some areas might witness a very slow retreat of floodwater for they lacked proper draining facilities as a flash flood of this scale was never expected.
The disaster management and relief ministry said that the flash flood so far killed 23 people in 11 districts, affecting over 57 lakh people, including over 12 lakh people stranded and 4.69 people staying in 3,834 flood shelters.
‘The flood situation deteriorated for a number of reasons in Noakhali,’ said district relief and rehabilitation officer Muhammad Zahid Hasan Khan.
Noakhali is a floodplain sitting between hills of Tripura, where extremely heavy rain occurred in the third week of the month, sending massive volumes of run-off rushing toward Bangladesh.
The furious flash flood first struck Feni, which saw the flood retreat substantially over the last two days. Feni, however, remained out of electricity and mobile network coverage until Monday.
The situation in the coastal district Noakhali worsened as water from the Gumti River started entering the district. Gumti also flooded Cumilla district, where the situation complicated as India was reportedly releasing water from the Dumboor hydroelectric project.
Floodwater swept the Muchhapur regulator in Companyganj on Monday posing a fresh threat to Noakhali, potentially increasing the threat of saltwater intrusion from the Bay of Bengal during high tide, said Zahid.
‘The main threat is the rain which is continuing rather strongly,’ said the Noakhali district relief and rehabilitation officer.
The official estimate showed that the number of flood affected people increased by about half a million between Sunday and Monday. The official death toll rose to 23 from 18.
Coastal areas experienced very heavy rain over the last two days.
On Monday, according to the Bangladesh Meteorological Department, the country’s highest rainfall of 222mm in the 24 hours until 6:00pm was recorded in Jashore.
Noakhali recorded 94mm of rainfall over the same time.
In the south-west, the Khulna relief and rehabilitation office said that in the Paikgachha upazila over 40,000 people were stranded due to the intrusion of saltwater through a breach opened in May during the cyclonic storm Remal.
News agency UNB reported that 2,000 people sought refuge in flood shelters in the district.
‘The weather is expected to be better from tomorrow,’ meteorologist Bazlur Rashid told New Age, adding that a dry spell was about to set in.
New Age correspondent in Cumilla reported that at least 30 new villages were inundated after the flood breached parts of an embankment protecting Brahmanpara.
Local people passed yet another horrible day in the district, watching helplessly the continued onrush of water from the upstream.
New Age correspondent in Lakshmipur reported that the flood situation in the district worsened on Monday.
The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said that the Gumti was flowing 45cm above the danger mark in Cumilla at 9:00am on Monday.
The Gumti was one of the two rivers that still flooded their banks. The Kusiyara flowed 4cm above its danger mark at Amalshid.
The flood forecasting centre predicted an overall improvement in the ongoing flood situation over the next 24 hours except for the rivers in the hill basin— Sangu, Matamuhuri, Karnaphuli, Halda and other major rivers—which might increase over the next 24 hours following heavy rain upstream.
The India Meteorological Department predicted isolated heavy rainfall in Bangladesh’s upstream through the rest of the month.
Rural Electrification Department’s member Debasish Chakraborty, who is in charge of distribution, said that 6.85 lakh people remained beyond electricity supply until Monday.
In preliminary estimate in areas where floodwater receded, he said, the flash flood washed away 733 electric poles, 331 transformers, 328 insulators and 7,500 meters and tore power cable at 2,207 places.
New Age correspondent in Chattogram reported that the road communication between Dhaka and Chattogram resumed after four days while the rain link between the capital and the port city continued to remain suspended.
The flash flood left monstrous potholes at places in the Dhaka-Chattogram highway in Feni.
The flood also washed away thousands of hectares of agricultural land, including aman seedbed, hundreds of fish and poultry farms, houses and other infrastructure in its course. An overall estimate of the flood-induced loss was still not available.
‘It is taking far longer than usual to travel on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway for the flood left behind giant holes in Feni and Cumilla,’ said Masum Sarker, an assistant superintendent of police of the highway police department.
New Age
