Flood situation in Bangladesh grim

The flood situation in Bangladesh is grim, and could get worse, experts here have said.

Dhaka, Aug.1 : The flood situation in Bangladesh is grim, and could get worse, experts here have said.

On Tuesday, eleven people drowned in flood waters in the northern districts and over 35 were declared missing in Tangail District. The overall death toll is yet to be ascertained, but estimates say that it may cross the 200 mark.

The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in Dhaka said the situation in the northern districts would continue to get worse in few days. An executive engineer said that the districts of Gaibandha, Sirajganj and Jamalpur were experiencing difficulty in burying their dead as every inch of land was under water.

The Bangladesh Red Crescent Society and the International Federation of Red Crescent Societies have opened a cell in Dhaka to monitor the flood situation and assess the losses.

The receding flood waters are likely to inundate areas in Manikganj, Munshiganj, Faridpur, Rajbari, Madaripur, Shariatpur and Dhaka.

The River Meghna was flowing 25 cm above the danger mark at Bhairab Bazar and is likely to rise further to inundate areas in Narsingdi, Brahmanbaria and Narayanganj, a Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre bulletin said on Tuesday.

At least 13 rivers are said to be flowing above the danger mark at 19 points on Tuesday. The rivers include Dharla, Brahmaputra, Jamuna, Kaliganga, Dhaleswari, Padma, Meghna, Surma, Someswari and Kangsa. Small rivers surrounding Dhaka and Narayanganj continued rising and are likely to flow above danger level in a day or two, it said. illions have been affected in 34 flood-affected districts are mounting for shortage of food, safe drinking water and shelter. Waterborne diseases have broken out in many places.

Food and Disaster Management Adviser, Tapan Chowdhury, visited the flood-affected areas in Tangail and distributed relief materials among the victims on Tuesday, a news agency report said.

Some experts believe this year's floods will be as long and as devastating as that which occurred in 1998.

A M Chowdhury, former head of the Bangladesh Space Research and Remote Sensing Organisation, was quoted by a local daily as saying that the floods would take a serious turn in the next few days.

He said 92 per cent of the water in the country was coming from outside.

"As it is raining incessantly in Bhutan, Nepal, Meghalaya, Sikim, Uttar Pradesh, and Bihar, water will continue to come down," he warned.

Water Resources Planning Organisation Director General Mohammad Inamul Haque said the floods would be on a medium scale. iarrhoea and other waterborne diseases are spreading fast in the districts that have so far been flooded for want of pure drinking water. Acute respiratory infection, malaria and skin diseases have also become prevalent among the flood victims, health ministry sources said. Incidents of snakebite have also been reported.

Sources in the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research, Bangladesh, and the health services control room said about 450 diarrhoea patients were admitted to the ICDDR,B and the number of new patients outside the capital was 1,394 in the last 24 hours.

Health experts fear that the number of the diarrhoea patients will double in mid-August because of the scarcity of pure drinking water in most of the flooded areas.

ANI