Sharjah 24 – AFP: Nearly 300,000 Bangladeshis took refuge in emergency shelters on Saturday as floods inundated large parts of the low-lying country, disaster officials reported. Triggered by heavy monsoon rains, the floods have claimed at least 42 lives in Bangladesh and India since the start of the week, many due to landslides.
Bangladesh, a nation of 170 million crisscrossed by rivers, has faced frequent floods in recent decades. Monsoon rains cause annual destruction, but climate change is intensifying these events. Highways and rail lines between Dhaka and Chittagong have been damaged, hindering access to severely flooded districts and disrupting business.
Cox's Bazar, home to a million Rohingya refugees from Myanmar, is among the worst-hit areas. Sarat Kumad Das, a Tripura state disaster official, reported 24 deaths on the Indian side since Monday. In Bangladesh, disaster management ministry secretary Md Kamrul Hasan confirmed 18 deaths, with 285,000 people now in emergency shelters and 4.5 million affected overall.
Crowds gathered at Dhaka University on Friday to donate cash as students loaded supplies for flood-affected areas. The country, composed largely of deltas fed by the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers, continues to suffer from overflowing tributaries, though rains are expected to ease soon.
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