Bangladesh authorities have stepped up efforts to provide food and drinking water to millions of people in need after heavy rains caused catastrophic flooding in a quarter of the country.
Bangladesh is considered one of the world’s most climate-sensitive countries. A 2015 World Bank Institute analysis shows that an estimated 3.5 million Bangladeshis are at risk of river flooding yearly.
On Wednesday, at least 17 of the country’s 64 districts, mostly in the north and northeast of Sylhet, were reeling from the natural disaster.
Authorities say at least 36 people have died, and and out of of 4.5 million people have been stranded. The floods also threaten agriculture, infrastructure, and clean water supplies.
Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain, chief manager of the Sylhet division, said 365 medical teams were trying to reach flood plains to deliver tablets to purify drinking water.
The Sylhet region is one of the hardest hit regions, and several areas are also without electricity.
“We are making frantic efforts to ensure there is food and drinking water for all affected people,” said Atiqul Haque, director-general of the Bangladesh Department of Disaster Management.
Large parts of farming villages were flooded. Rescue teams used boats to deliver drinking water, medicine, and food to people on higher ground and government buildings.
“Many people urgently need food and drinking water,” said Enam Ahmed, 45, a resident of the worst-affected district of Sunmaganj.
“There is water everywhere, but no drinking water. Flood shelters were full of people, but they are not getting enough food,” he said.
The crisis in Bangladesh has been exacerbated by rainwater pouring down from the surrounding hills of the Indian state of Meghalaya, including some of the world’s wettest areas, such as Mawsynram and Cherrapunji, which received more than 970mm of rain each, according to the government data on Sunday.
At least seven people have died in the Indian state of Assam in the past 24 hours, bringing the toll to 44 during the current wave of flooding that began about two weeks ago, officials said.
“The flooding situation in the three districts of the Barak Valley remains very serious. Army rescuers have evacuated thousands of stranded people,” Himanta Biswa Sarma, Assam’s prime minister, told Reuters.
India’s National Disaster Management Force said in a statement that 14 teams with more than 70 boats and more than 400 men have been deployed in the heavily flooded districts of Assam.
The team had taken about 14,200 people trapped in the flooding to safe places.
About 5.5 million people have been displaced, of whom about 3.7 million reside in government-run makeshift shelters on elevated banks or other higher ground.
Locals in the flooded areas said they had never seen such widespread devastation from rain and that they could soon face a shortage of essential items.