C T Online Desk: Flood victims in the country’s eastern region are suffering from acute shortages of food and clean drinking water as the floodwaters start to recede. They are in dire need of flood relief, and many have complained that they are not receiving any aid in the remote areas.
Thousands of flood victims have begun returning to their homes, but they are forced to spend their days under the open sky as their homes have been damaged and washed away by the river.
Many waterborne diseases have broken out in the flood-affected areas, and many people are gathering at medical camps and hospitals. Diarrhoea, respiratory tract infections (RTIs), skin diseases, and eye infections have spread among the flood-affected people, who are facing an acute crisis of clean drinking water.
According to the National Health Crisis Management Centre, a total of 2,528 people have fallen ill with diarrhoea, of whom three have died.
Twenty-eight people fell ill after drowning, 23 of whom have died. A further 271 people have suffered snake bites, with one fatality, five people have died from electrocution, and 3,680 people have been affected by other diseases, resulting in 14 deaths.
At least 54 people have died in the floods as of Friday evening, while 1,009,522 families have been severely affected over the last 11 days by the devastating floods in the east and southeast of the country.
Heavy monsoon rains and upstream surges from India caused a flash flood, plunging 5.4 million people into abject misery.
Of the deceased, 41 are male, six are female, and seven are children.
So far, 19 people have died in Feni, 14 in Cumilla, eight in Noakhali, six in Chattogram, three in Cox’s Bazar, and one each in Khagrachari, Brahmanbaria, Moulvibazar, and Lakshmipur, according to the Daily Disaster Situation report of the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief.
A large number of houses, structures, trees, and crops across vast tracts of land have been washed away by floodwaters and the strong currents of rivers in various flood-hit areas.
The overall flood situation in the country has improved further as all the major rivers are now flowing below the danger level, said Sarder Udoy Raihan, executive engineer of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre of the Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB).
