Bangladesh, 30 dead from floods in north-central. Thousands of people without food

Entire villages submerged by floodwaters, crops destroyed. Numerous rivers break their banks. regional director of Caritas: "I was on the banks of the Brahmaputra and saw thousands of people waiting for help." The government has begun distributing food and aid.

Dhaka (AsiaNews) - At least 30 people have died due to the floods that are hitting the central and northeastern part of Bangladesh. The residents of 14 districts have been struggling for days with flooding of rivers and heavy monsoon rains that are destroying homes and crops. The government reports that thousands of homes have been washed away and hundreds of schools are closed for security reasons. Many people are without access to food or aid.

Miha Alam, a resident of Rouha village (near Jamalpur), says: "Our house was flooded five days ago and all the food we haddestroyed . From that moment no one has come to bring us aid. " Local media reported that there are at least five childrenamong the dead who drowned in floodwaters.

Nabakumar Chowdhury, an Engineer at the Water Development Council of Jamalpur, said that many rivers have broken their banks. The Jamuna has beaten the 1988 record for the height of floodwaters (112 cm). Mahfuzur Rahman, an official of the Kurigam Council, has announced that the Brahmaputra is currently flowing at 99 centimeters above the warning threshold, while the Dharala is at 88 cm beyond the red mark.

The Ministry for Environmental Disasters has begun distributing aid and relief, but they are not sufficient given the scale of the emergency. Sahabuddin Khan, Deputy Commissioner of Jamalpur district, says: "Every day we send rice and cooked food to the areas affected by the floods. Every day we send more".

Denis C. Baskey, regional director of Caritas Rajshahi, said: "We plan to bring aid in the northern districts. I have visited Sirajgonj [on the Brahmaputra River ed] and I saw thousands of people waiting for help (see photo). We informed our donors and we hope that soon we will receive an answer to give relief to these victims".

• bangladesh
• floods
• brahmaputra
• rivers
• flooding
• monsoon
• rains
• Caritas
• relief
• efforts