Sharjah 24 – AFP: The death toll from floods in Bangladesh this week has risen to eight, leaving more than two million affected after heavy rains caused major rivers to burst their banks, officials confirmed Saturday.
The South Asian nation of 170 million people, crisscrossed by hundreds of rivers, has seen more frequent floods in recent decades.
Climate change has made rainfall more erratic and melting glaciers upstream in the Himalayan mountains.
The government said it has opened hundreds of shelters for people displaced by the waters and sent food and relief to hard-hit districts in the country's north region.
"More than two million people have been affected by the floods. Seventeen of the country's 64 districts have been affected," Kamrul Hasan, the secretary of the country's disaster management ministry, said.
Bangladesh is in the middle of the annual summer monsoon, which brings South Asia 70-80 percent of its annual rainfall, as well as regular deaths and destruction due to flooding and landslides.
The rainfall is hard to forecast and varies considerably, but scientists say climate change is making the monsoon stronger and more erratic.
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