Bangladesh flood situation improves with water levels receding

The overall flood situation in Bangladesh has improved in most of the districts with water levels in many rivers receding.

Sarder Udoy Raihan, Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) executive engineer, said on Thursday that water level receded at most of the 101 observation points across the four major river basins.

He further said three major Brahmaputra-Jamuna and Padma rivers are in a falling trend, while the Ganges river is in a steady state and would remain stable in the next 72 hours, reports Xinhua.

Of the total 101 river observation points, Raihan said the water is currently flowing above the danger level merely at two points.

Since June, he said, the floods triggered by heavy seasonal rains and onrush of water from hills have left a trail of death, misery and destruction in their wake.

The disaster situation report prepared by the country's National Disaster Response Coordination Center (NDRCC) under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief said at least 5 million people have been affected by the floods while thousands of families were forced to flee home.

Three waves of devastating floods have claimed hundreds of lives in Bangladesh.

According to a flood report of the country's Health Emergency Operation Centre and Control Room, the floods have killed 226 people in 33 (out of 64) districts since June 30.

Most victims have drowned but some died in snake bites and lightning in the flood-hit areas, showed the report.

The latest TV reports showed the floods caused widespread damage to habitation, crops, roads and highways across vast swathes of the country.

The loss of crops due to floods in Bangladesh has been put at 13.23 billion Tk (about 156.4 million US dollars).

Bangladeshi Agriculture Minister Abdur Razzaque told journalists last week that crops on 0.15 million hectares of land in 37 districts had been destroyed fully or partially, adding that floods had hit Bangladesh for three times this year since June.

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.