Flood deluge worsens in Bangladesh with millions affected

FENI, Bangladesh: Flash floods wrought havoc in Bangladesh on Friday as the country recovers from weeks of political upheaval, with the death toll rising to 15 and millions more caught in the deluge.

“It’s a catastrophic situation here,” rescue volunteer Zahed Hossain Bhuiya, 35, told AFP from the worst-hit city of Feni. “We are trying to rescue as many people as we can.”

Nur Islam, a shopkeeper in Feni, said his home had been completely submerged.

“Everything is underwater,” the 60-year-old said.

All major tributaries of the two transnational rivers were overflowing, according to local media reports.

In India’s hard-hit Tripura state, more than 23 people have died in the floods since Monday.

Bangladesh’s disaster management ministry said in a bulletin that its latest toll of 15 deaths included fatalities in cities along the country’s southeastern coast.

That included the main port city of Chittagong and Cox’s Bazar, the latter a district home to around a million Rohingya refugees from neighbouring Myanmar.

Areas east of the capital Dhaka were also badly hit including the city of Comilla, near the border with Tripura state in India.

Asif Mahmud, a leader of the student protests that ousted Hasina, and who is now in Yunus´ caretaker cabinet, on Wednesday accused India of “creating a flood” by deliberately releasing water from dams.

India’s foreign ministry rejected the charge, saying its own catchment area had experienced the “heaviest rains of this year” this week, and that the flow of water downstream was due to “automatic releases”. Hundreds of people nonetheless gathered at Dhaka University on Friday to protest India’s “water aggression”, featuring a banner showing Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi delighting at the sight of drowning people.

“Water that has come from India has washed away all our euphoria,” activist and poet Saikat Amin told AFP on the sidelines.