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Floods in Bangladesh leave thousands homeless
About 3,000 families in northeast Bangladesh have been left homeless by flash floods triggered by heavy rain and water gushing across the border from neighbouring India, officials said on Saturday.
About 3,000 families in northeast Bangladesh have been left homeless by flash floods triggered by heavy rain and water gushing across the border from neighbouring India, officials said on Saturday.
Some families have moved to higher ground while others sought refuge with relatives and friends, said an official in Moulvibazar, one of the areas worst hit by three days of floods.
There have been no deaths reported so far. Agriculture officials reported some damage to rice crops but could not give a complete assessment immediately.
Worse threatens, as more rain swept much of Bangladesh on Saturday, including the capital Dhaka and parts of the southeast, local officials told reporters.
They blamed the flooding partly on rainwater rolling in from hills in northeast India, which caused several breaches in a river dyke in Moulvibazar, about 250 km (150 miles) from Dhaka.
The dyke protects Moulvibazar, a tea- and rice-growing district, from the onslaught of the Monu river, officials said.
In far northern Lalmonirhat district, the rain-swollen Teesta river has washed away at least 200 homes and displaced around 20,000 villagers over the last week.
Local officials said the rivers, though still below danger level, would turn furious with the full onset of the monsoon, which weather officials on Saturday said was "fairly active now".
Villages in Moulvibazar, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Habiganj, and Chittagong are likely to be affected by this year's floods, weather officials said.
Widespread or localised floods occur almost every year in Bangladesh, which is criss-crossed by hundreds of rivers, many of them flowing from the Himalayas through India.
