Flood improves in north, worsens down stream

The flood situation has improved in the northern region of the country as the water level in the rivers started receding there, but districts surrounding Dhaka reported the opposite.

Thirteen districts were flooded yesterday as water of eight rivers -- the Dharla, the Brahmaputra, the Jamuna, the Turag, the Kaliganga, the Padma, the Atrai and the Dhaleshwari -- was flowing above the danger level.

At Chilmari point in Kurigram, the water lever of the Jumuna has receded to 17cm above the danger level at 9:00am yesterday, from 44cm on Saturday. At the same time, water was flowing 44cm above the danger level in the Dharla River Bridge point in Kurigram Sadar upazila.

At Teesta Barrage point in Lalmonirhat's Hatibandha, the water was flowing 23cm below the danger level yesterday morning and it was 2cm above on Saturday morning.

Around 120,000 people in Kurigram are still affected by the flood and the majority of them are struggling for food and fresh drinking water.

Sabiha Bewa, 58, a flood victim at Hatiya village of Ulipur upazila, said she along with her eight-member family have been living with the floodwaters for the last ten days. "We got only 10kg rice as government relief."

According to the Water Development Board (WDB), Bogura and Gaibandha, the water of the Jamuna has started receding since last Saturday.

According to the district relief and rehabilitation office in Bogura, around 66,000 people remained marooned but the district administration only distributed 170 tonnes of rice, and Tk 200,000 and 1,000 packets of dry foods.

Sufia Khatun, 40, of the Manik Diar Char, said, "Now we are almost starving but did not receive any relief materials from anyone."

Kamrul Hasan, 45, of the same char under the Chaluabari union, said they were facing double blow as their houses were flooded while river erosion was devouring their land.

In Gaibandha, there are 85,975 people marooned by the flood in four upazila but the district administration distributed only 100 tonnes of rice, Tk 200,000 and 1,500 packets of dry foods.

The water level of the Jamuna is stable in the last 24 hours while the Padma and all the internal rivers of Manikganj district are increasing.

Manikganj Water Development Board's gauge reader Faruk Hossain said, "The water of the Jamuna was flowing 40cm above the danger mark at Aricha in Manikganj at 3:00pm today [yesterday] as it is stable in last 24 hours from 3:00pm on Friday.

"The Kaliganga was flowing 24cm above the danger mark at Tora point as 14cm increased in the last 24 hours while the Dhaleshwari was flowing 13cm below the danger mark at Jagir point though it has increased by 10cm in the last 24 hours."

The water of other rivers including the Padma is also increasing by 7cm to 8cm in a day, he added.

At Bhagyakul point in Munshiganj, the water level of the Padma was 22cm above the danger line yesterday.

Ranendra Shankar Chakraborty, executive engineer of District Water Development Board, said waterlogging was created in several low-lying areas of Louhajanj and Tongibari due to rising water level of the tributary river.

"The district has already been marked as a flood-affected area."