Bandung, IndonesiaSentinel.com — The heavy floods in Bangladesh has took 71 lives up until Tuesday, September 3, with millions of people still stranded in devastated areas. Meanwhile, there’s also increasing concern about waterborne disease outbreaks as the floodwaters seem not receding.
Triggered by relentless rains and runoff from upstream waterways, this has led to a heavy flood striking over the past two weeks, causing massive destruction and affecting around five million people.
More than 580,000 families are still stranded in 11 districts struck by the flood, and in urgent need of food, clean water, medicine, and dry clothing. Nearly 500 medical teams were helping provide treatment, with the army, air force, navy, and border guard assisting in relief efforts.
Authorities are now shifting their focus to preventing the spread of waterborne diseases, a common aftermath of flood disasters, and also ensuring the availability of clean drinking water.
The Directorate General of Health Services said nearly 5,000 people had been hospitalized over the past 24 hours for cases of diarrhea, skin infections, and snake bites.
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Heavy rain in the capital Dhaka on Tuesday destroyed many districts, sinking the road in water from knee to waist, causing massive traffic jams as vehicles struggled through waterlogged streets.
Crops worth 33.5 billion taka (USD $282 million) were also damaged by the floods, affecting more than 1.4 million farmers, according to a preliminary assessment by the agriculture ministry.
The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has said two million children are at risk from Bangladesh’s most severe flooding in three decades. UNICEF has launched an urgent appeal for $35 million to provide essential supplies to those affected.
“Year after year, the lives of millions of children in Bangladesh are being devastated by floods, heatwaves, and cyclones. Climate change is clearly altering children’s lives,” said Emma Brigham, Deputy Representative of UNICEF Bangladesh.
In the past two months, countless floods have struck across South Asia, from Afghanistan to Bangladesh, India to Nepal, Flash flooding and rain have killed hundreds of people. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization is predicting “above normal” rainfall for the South Asia monsoon season is expected to last until September. This shows the climate crisis effects on the monsoon season can bring widespread devastation in South Asia.
(Raidi/Agung)
