Around 650,000 people have been marooned as the floods have now hit 13 northern and northeastern districts, says Disaster Management and Relief Minister Mofazzal Hossain Chowdhury.
In a media briefing on Wednesday, he claimed that there was ‘no shortage’ of relief materials and urged all to stand beside the flood-affected people.
Flash floods and heavy rains have left several districts in the northern and northeastern part of the country since the beginning of July.
The Met office has forecasted heavy rains in the next few days, which will worsen the situation.
Minister Chowdhury said on Tuesday that the floods have affected the districts of Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Cox’s Bazar, Kurigram, Gaibandha, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Bogra, Jamalpur and Sirajganj.
He added more districts may be affected if the flood waters in the north recede to the central part of the country.
Until Tuesday, waters in nine rivers of the country were flowing above the danger level in 17 points and were rising in 55 other points.
“There have been floods this year in upper riparian countries like India, China, Nepal and Bhutan, which will affect Bangladesh,” said Chowdhury.
According to him, they have distributed 4,000 tonnes of rice, 18,500 packets of dry food and disbursed Tk 10.95 million in cash to marooned people in 13 districts between Jul 3 and 11.
“Around 650,000 people in 45 Upazila of these districts have been affected. We have instructed the local administrations to keep us updated about how much relief and assistance they would need.”
The minister said he will be starting to visit the flood-affected areas in the northern part of the country on Thursday.
Replying to a query, he said that as many as 1,000 people in Sylhet and Moulvibazar districts have moved to flood shelter centres and that his ministry instructed local administrations to open such facilities in northern Bangladesh.
“We had anticipated floods this year and took preparations according to that,” said Chowdhury.