ALBAWABA - With more than two million people affected, at least 8 people have been killed as heavy rains continue to ravage Bangladesh, which was triggered by river banks bursting onto nearby lands.
In Shahjadur, a remote hamlet in northern India, two adolescent lads lost their lives when a boat overturned in floodwaters, according to Sabuj Rana, the police chief.
Bishwadeb Roy, a police chief in Kurigram district, one of the most severely affected districts, told AFP that three people were electrocuted after their boats became entangled with live electrical lines in flooded areas.
According to reports, the police declared the building of hundreds of shelters for individuals affected by flooding, as well as the transportation of food and relief to the hardest-hit northern districts.
According to Kamrul Hasan, secretary of the Ministry of Disaster Management, the flooding has affected nearly two million people in seventeen of Bangladesh's 64 districts.
Hasan believes the flood situation in the north would deteriorate in the following days, as the Brahmaputra, one of Bangladesh's main waterways, flows over dangerous levels in several areas.
"More than 2 million people have been affected by the floods. Seventeen of the country’s 64 districts have been affected," Hasan stated.
Eight out of nine towns and villages in the worst-hit Kurigram area have been stranded by floodwaters, according to local disaster and relief officer Abdul Hye.
"We live with floods here. But this year the water was very high. In three days, Brahmaputra rose by 2-2.5 meters" a local councilor in the district, said. "Flood water has inundated more than 80% of homes in my area. We are trying to deliver food, especially rice and edible oil. But there is a drinking water crisis," he added.
