More than two million people are affected by heavy rains that caused major rivers to burst their banks in Bangladesh this week, according to officials who confirmed the death toll on Saturday ( July 6 ).
The South Eastern region of 170 million people, crisscrossed by thousands of river, has seen more frequent storms in recent years.
Rainfall is becoming more unpredictable and ice are melting upstream in the Himalayan peaks due to climate change.
Sabuj Rana, the police chief in the north rural town, reported to AFP that two young boys were killed when a boat capsized in flood waters in Shahjadur.
” In the little vessel, there were nine individuals. Seven swam to health. The other two guys were swimming incompetent. They drowned”, he said.
Three people were killed in two distinct accident situations after their boats gotten caught in live power wires in flood waters, according to Bishwadeb Roy, a police commander in Kurigram, according to Bishwadeb Roy, a chief of police in the city.
Authorities told AFP earlier this week that three more died in separate flood-related instances throughout the nation.
The government claimed to have sent food and aid to troubled areas in the country’s northern region and that it has provided hundreds of shelters to people who have been displaced by the waters.
” Over two million people have been impacted by the storms. 17 of the country’s 64 regions have been affected”, Kamrul Hasan, the director of the country’s disaster control department, told AFP.
Hasan said the storm condition may increase in the northern over the coming days with the Brahmaputra, one of Bangladesh’s major waterways, flowing above risk levels in some areas.
Eight out of nine remote towns have been destroyed by flood waters in the worst-hit Kurigram area, according to local disaster and comfort standard Abdul Hye, who spoke to AFP.
” We live with storms here. However, the ocean was extremely high this time. In three days, Brahmaputra rose by 6ft to 8ft ( 2m- 2.5m )”, Abdul Gafur, a local councillor in the district, told AFP.
More than 80 % of houses in my area have been flooded by flood water. Rice and nutritious oil are two items that we are attempting to deliver. But there is a consuming water issue”.
Bangladesh is in the middle of an annual summer rain, which causes ordinary incidents and damage from flooding and landslides as well as 70 to 80 percent of its annual precipitation.
Although the snowfall is difficult to predict and varies widely, researchers claim that climate change is making the rain stronger and more unpredictable.