Floods surround nearly two million people in Bangladesh
Bangladesh has deployed the army to help nearly two million people stranded by flood waters after torrential monsoon rains inundated large swathes of land for the second time in two weeks, officials said Friday.
Floods pose a regular threat to millions in Bangladesh's lowlands, but experts say climate change is making them more dangerous and unpredictable.
Most of the northeastern regions were inundated and the situation could worsen over the weekend with more rain expected.
Authorities have suspended examinations in secondary schools in most parts of the country, where school buildings are being used to house people displaced by floods.
"The situation is very worrying. More than two million people are now stranded because of the flood waters," Sylhet district director Muhammad Musharraf Hussain told AFP.
"People have taken refuge in the boats. We have deployed the army and are trying to evacuate them," he added.
Hussein pointed out that the authorities sent the army to the rural towns hit by the floods, and the soldiers were distributing aid to the affected and rescuing people from the high tide.
Arifuzzaman Boyan of the government's Flood Forecasting and Warning Center said last week's heavy rains in Bangladesh and parts of neighboring India had poured into overflowing rivers.
He added that the Surma River, the largest watercourse in the Sylhet region, was more than a meter higher than usual.
"This is one of the worst floods in the history of the region. The situation will get worse in the next three days," he added.
The Bangladeshi journalist based in Sylhet, Mamoon Hussain, told AFP that most of the area currently lacks electricity and the Internet.
Late last month, Sylhet was hit by the worst floods in two decades, killing 10 people and affecting four million others.
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