Unrelenting monsoon downpours and floods have left approximately three million individuals marooned in Bangladesh, resulting in two fatalities. This has led to widespread submersion and destruction of residences and infrastructure, according to officials from the nation's disaster management ministry on Thursday.
Reuters TV depicted Bangladeshi inhabitants evacuating their homes with their possessions via boat and improvised transport as water levels rose to knee-height. The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) has cautioned that ongoing rainfall could lead to further increases in water levels within the next 24 hours, sparking fears of additional flooding and displacement.
Road connections in multiple regions have been disrupted, isolating communities and impeding relief operations, as reported by disaster management and relief officials. The most severely impacted districts in Bangladesh consist of Feni, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Comilla, and Chittagong, where five significant rivers are surpassing critical levels, according to the FFWC.
"I haven't witnessed such extensive water levels in the past two decades. My entire home is devastated as the water has reached waist height," lamented Mohammad Masum, a resident of Feni district. A 2015 assessment by the World Bank Institute projected that 3.5 million people in Bangladesh, one of the globe's most climate-susceptible nations, faced the threat of annual river flooding. Scientists link the intensification of these catastrophic events to climate change.
On Wednesday evening, students in Dhaka organized protest marches, accusing the opening of dam sluice gates in neighboring India for the floods. India's foreign ministry refuted the claim, stating it was "incorrect" to attribute the floods to water discharged from the Dumbur dam on the Gumti River in the northeastern state of Tripura.
"We wish to highlight that the catchment areas of the Gumti River, which traverses both India and Bangladesh, have experienced the heaviest rainfall this year over the past few days," the ministry declared in a statement on Thursday. "The flooding in Bangladesh is mainly due to the waters from these extensive catchments downstream of the dam."
In Tripura, 12 individuals have perished due to landslides and floods induced by relentless rain over the last three days, informed Suman Deb, an Indian disaster management official.
"The consequences have been catastrophic, and rescue operations are in progress," Deb conveyed. India's interior minister, Amit Shah, announced on X that the federal government has dispatched disaster management teams, along with boats and helicopters, to Tripura to aid the state government in relief and rescue efforts.
"Floods on the shared rivers between India and Bangladesh pose a common challenge, causing hardships to people on both sides, necessitating close mutual collaboration to address them," India's foreign ministry stated.
