Nearly 3,000 houses in chars of the Teesta River have been inundated along with 10,000 hectares of land on Sunday after India opened 32 floodgates at the Gajoldoba barrage in West Bengal in the wake of extremely heavy rainfall, reports the Bangladesh Water Development Board.
After leaping half a metre since Saturday, the Teesta flowed just 5 centimetres below the danger mark at 3:00pm on Sunday, prompting the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in Bangladesh to issue a flash flood warning that might hit the river鈥檚 basin area, particularly the districts of Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Kurigram by afternoon today.
鈥楾he rise in the river鈥檚 water level is caused by a combination of heavy rainfall and India opening floodgates at the Gajoldoba barrage,鈥� said Sunil Kumar Roy, executive engineer at the BWDB Lalmonirhat district office.
Sunil said that all the 54 floodgates of Gajoldoba barrage were released on Saturday afternoon.
India arbitrarily releasing water from Gajoldoba, often without any warning, has become a regular affair during monsoon. The Teesta recently made it to national newspapers with its dry bed lying bare.
The sudden release of water from the upstream prompted authorities to open all the 44 floodgates at the Teesta Barrage in Bangladesh.
Low-lying areas affected by the rise in the Teesta include areas Goddimari union of Hatibandha upazila and Gobardhan area and Mahishkhocha union under Aditmari upazila, both under Lalmonirhat district.
Moshiar Rahman, a resident of Harinchwra in Lalmonirhat Sadar upazila, said on Sunday that the Teesta ran low even on the previous day.
鈥楤ut now the crop farms have gone under water and many people are preparing to leave home,鈥� he said.
The FFWC noted on Sunday afternoon that heavy to very heavy rainfall occurred in the past 24 hours in Rangpur and Sylhet divisions and over vast swaths of land in West Bengal of India and in its north-eastern states.
Moderate to heavy rainfall is predicted over the same region over the next three days, the FFWC bulletin said.
The Teesta basin in the Indian upstream witnessed widespread rain over the last few days under the influence of a depression.
In the 24 hours until 8:30am on Sunday, most areas in the Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim experienced heavy to extremely heavy rainfall with the highest 240mm of rainfall recorded in Alipurduar, reported the India Meteorological Department.聽聽聽聽
In the 24 hours until 6:00pm on Sunday, the Bangladesh Meteorological Department said that the country鈥檚 highest rainfall of 139mm was recorded in Sylhet, followed by 110mm of rainfall recorded in Rajarhat of Kurigram, and 66mm of rainfall recorded in Rangpur.
Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum day temperature of 35C was recorded in Satkhira and Koyra in Khulna.