The flood situation in the north and north-east further worsened on Thursday with forecasts of fresh areas particularly along the Brahmaputra basin getting inundated over the next three days mainly due to the continued onrush of water from upstream regions.
Scores of villages went under water in Kurigram, Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Sirajganj and Bogura on Thursday as rivers continued to flood their banks and breach embankments, sending huge volumes of water towards villages, destroying standing crops, wrecking houses, washing away fish farms and forcing people to live in boats.
The torrential monsoon rainfall that started on June 29 triggering floods in Bangladesh and its adjacent upstream areas in India finally began to reduce amidst forecasts of isolated heavy to extremely heavy rainfall persisting through the first week of the month.
The flood is forecast to spread down to parts of central Bangladesh over the next three days gradually inundating new areas, warned the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in a special flood outlook issued on Thursday afternoon.
鈥榃e have to find a shelter,鈥� said Mazeda Begum, a resident of Purbo Baladobarchar at Birganj of Ulipur, Kurigram, as they were prepared to leave their house, sunk in chest-deep water in the afternoon.
Mazeda was holding a five-day-old daughter in her lap with her belongings loaded into a small wooden boat. She gave birth to the baby on the bed at her home with flood water flowing under it.
鈥極ur target is to find a relative with a house where flood water did not reach,鈥� said Mazeda.
Abdus Salam, a farmer of Mogolbacha union under Kurigram Sadar upazila, said that three-fourths of his standing crops were now rotting under water. Salam began making a wooden boat sensing flood this year.
About a lakh people were affected by flood in Kurigram alone.
Abdul Kaiyum, chairman of Bazra union parishad at Ulipur, said that his entire union was flooded, with 65 houses lost to erosion over the past week.
About 80 per cent of the landscape in Narayanpur union under Nageshwari upazila was under water.
The bordering Kurigram district bears the brunt during monsoon floods for it is one of the places through which water enters from upstream.
抖阴精品 correspondent in Lalmonirhat reported the closure of over 150 primary schools in Lalmonirhat, Rangpur, Kurigram and Gaibandha.
Due to the flood situation in Moulvibazar, the half-yearly evaluation examination has been suspended in 52 educational institutions of the district, 抖阴精品 correspondent in the district reported.
It was not possible to hold exams in these institutions due to flooding, Moulvibazar district education oficer Fazlur Rahman confirmed.聽
The Teesta River, meanwhile, breached embankment in Gaibandha鈥檚 Sundarganj on Thursday morning, submerging at least 15 villages.
The Ghaghat River in Saghata upazila washed away parts of another embankment, leaving thousands stranded in 13 villages.聽
People were seen living in boats with their livestock. At least 23 thousand people took shelter in places opened by the government for helping people affected by the flood.
鈥楳any of the affected areas are set to see the situation turn worse over the next few days,鈥� said Asif Ahsan, executive engineer of the Water Development Board for the Rangpur region.
The WDB鈥檚 Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in a special flood bulletin issued on Thursday afternoon predicted the flood situation to worsen in Kurigram, Jamalpur, Gaibandha, Bogura, Tangail, and Sirajganj over the next three days.
The Jamuna River is forecast to rise a metre above its danger mark at Bahadurabad and Sirajganj points.
The Teesta, Dharla and Dudhkumar rivers might overtop their flood levels. The Jamuneswari, Karatoya, Bangali, Apar Karatoa, Purnobhaba, Tangon, Ichamati-Jamuna, Atrai, Mahananda and Chhota Jamuna are also likely to rapidly rise.
The rivers in the Meghna basin, including Surma and Kusiyara, might keep rising through the rest of the week, overtopping the flood levels at Amalshid, Kanaighat, Sylhet, Sheola, Sherpur-Sylhet, Markuli, Moulvibazar, Derai and Kalmakanda points.
The rivers along the Brahmaputra and Meghna basins might start falling at the beginning of the second week of the month.
On Thursday, nine rivers, including the Brahmaputra and Jamuna, were flowing above their danger marks at 19 points, up to 154cm above the danger mark.
The FFWC recorded Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum rainfall of 75mm in Netrakona in the 24 hours until 9:00am on Thursday.
In the 24 hours until 6:00pm on Thursday, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department recorded the highest rainfall of 64mm in Faridpur.
For the next three days, the BMD predicted widespread rainfall across Bangladesh with moderately heavy to heavy rainfall at places in Rangpur, Chattogram and Sylhet divisions.
Bangladesh鈥檚 maximum temperature of 33.5C was recorded in Chuadanga on Thursday.聽聽聽
The India Meteorological Department predicted isolated heavy rainfall to extremely heavy rainfall in Bangladesh鈥檚 upstream areas such as Gangetic West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Assam and Meghalaya through July 7.
The IMD reported from 80mm to 120mm of rainfall over a vast area in Bangladesh鈥檚 upstream areas in the 24 hours until 8:30am on Thursday.