Millions have been blocked, and dozens have died in floods in Bangladesh and India

Heavy rains have caused widespread flooding in parts of Bangladesh and India, leaving millions stranded and killing at least 57, officials said on Saturday.

In Bangladesh, about two million people have been left behind by the worst floods in the northeastern part of the country in nearly two decades.

At least 100 villages in Zakiganj have been flooded after floods from northeastern India broke through a large embankment on the Barak River, said Mosharaf Hosain, the government’s chief government administrator.

“About two million people have been blocked by the floods so far,” he told AFP, adding that at least 10 people had died this week.

Many parts of Bangladesh and neighboring regions of India are prone to flooding, and experts say climate change is increasing the likelihood of extreme weather events around the world.

Each additional degree of global warming increases the amount of water in the atmosphere by about seven percent, with inevitable effects on precipitation.

At least 47 people have died in India this week in days of floods, landslides and thunderstorms, according to local disaster management authorities.

In the state of Assam, which borders Bangladesh, at least 14 people have died in landslides and floods.

Authorities in Assam said on Saturday that more than 850,000 people in about 3,200 villages had been affected by floods caused by torrential rains that flooded parts of agricultural land and damaged thousands of homes.

Nearly 90,000 people have been relocated to state aid shelters as river water levels are high and large tracts of land remain under water in most areas.

West of Assam, at least 33 people were killed in the state of Bihar in thunderstorms on Thursday.

More than three dozen people were injured in the off-season, which damaged hundreds of hectares of standing crops and thousands of fruit trees.

Bihar also suffered an intense heat wave this week, with temperatures reaching 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).

“Blessing and Curse”

In Zakiganj, Bangladesh, people were spotted fishing on flooded roads, and some residents took their cattle to flood shelters.

Bus driver Shamim Ahmed, 50, told AFP: “My house is up to my waist. There is no drinking water, we collect rainwater.

“Rain is both a blessing and a curse for us now.”

All the furniture in Lalila Begum’s widow’s home was destroyed, she said, but she and her two daughters remained in place, hoping the waters would recede in a day or two.

“My two daughters and I put one bed on top of another and we live on it,” she said. “There is a shortage of food. We share the food of one person and one meal a day.”

The floodwaters have entered many parts of the city of Sylhet, the largest in the northeast, where another official told AFP that about 50,000 families have been without electricity for days.

Hossein, the chief administrator, said the floods were caused by both rain and water on the other side of the Assam border.

But officials said the broken embankment at the Zakiganj border could only be repaired once the water level dropped.

© 2022 AFP