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| Floods 2004 |
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More than two crore people in 41 districts are living their days out with a little or no food and drinking water, as floods in the central, northern and northeastern regions threaten to worsen, with most rivers surging high above the danger mark. The civil aviation authorities are yet to resume flight operations at MAG Osmani International Airport in Sylhet, although floodwaters receded from the runway. Our Sylhet correspondent said airport officials said lighter flights such as F-28s may resume their services in a day or two, but it will take more days for heavy airbus services to be in place, if the situation improves. Passengers from Dubai, London and New York, bound for Sylhet, will be brought to the northeastern district via Dhaka by alternative arrangement, a civil aviation official said.
Another 25 people drowned or died of diarrhoea in the last one week in different districts, spiking the death toll to 118 since the beginning of monsoon blamed for the deluge in two other South Asian countries India and Nepal. An 8-year-old girl drowned slipping down into the water from a raft near Bhuiyarmura in Jakiganj upazila in Sylhet. The authorities put the Kaptai dam and Chittagong port on high alert as the river waters are swelling by the day. Rail links between seven northern and northeastern districts and the capital remained snapped and inter-district road links remained cut off yesterday. Army and paramilitary personnel have been deployed in northern districts to streamline the relief operations, but the relief is much inadequate, our correspondents reported from different districts. Low-lying areas in and around the capital, especially on its eastern fringe, are reeling under water. The flawed drainage and sewerage system already full of water prevents stagnated rainwater receding from lanes and by-lanes. A storm damaged at least 1,500 houses on Tuesday night and more than two lakh people there are affected by food and drinking water crises. At least 12 people drowned in floodwaters in 10 upazilas in Netrokona in a week. Thousands of flood-hit people started shifting from swamped areas to town and other safer places. At least seven people died in boat capsize on the ever-rising rivers or from snakebites in Habiganj. Thousands of people hit by flooding in the wake of breaching a flood control dam in Dhunat upazila in Bogra did not get any relief in the last seven days. The water levels in the rain-fed rivers are climbing in Pabna, one of the worst-hit areas. Five people went missing and 60 others were injured as a storm lashed Vangura upazila. A one-year-old child drowned in floodwaters in Sherpur on Tuesday.
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