Since the beginning of 2024 Bangladesh has faced four disaster emergencies, with one in every 10 people in the country getting affected by the natural calamities.
In the current spate of the eastern flash floods, almost five million people have been affected, Noakhali, Comilla, Lakshmipur, Feni, Chittagong and Moulvibazar being the most affected districts so far.
In addition to this, three previous disasters this year affected another 13 million people, notes a report of an UN agency.
“This is the fourth emergency Bangladesh has dealt with in 2024. Since May 2024, nearly 13 million people across 30% of Bangladesh have been affected by Cyclone Remal, Northeastern and Northern Floods,” said the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in its latest weekly report (August 20 – 26).
Since the onset of the monsoon season, Bangladesh has been affected by heavy flooding, including tropical cyclone Remal in May.
Heavy rainfall in India’s Meghalaya and Assam caused flash floods in northeast Bangladesh and while the situation started improving by mid-June, downpours in the country further exacerbated the situation in greater Sylhet and the Haor belt.
Quoting Bangladesh’s National Disaster Response Coordination Centre (NDRCC), the UN OCHA report says that the current spate of the eastern flash floods affected an estimated 4.94 million in the northeastern and southeastern regions.
Over 300,000 hectares of land flooded, 7,000 schools shut
Human casualties apart, the floods have submerged rural roads, agricultural fields, and fishponds, severely disrupting access to essential services and significantly impacting livelihoods.
According to the Department of Agricultural Extension, the deluge has flooded 311,419 hectares of land. The Department of Fisheries reports a loss of $135 million and the Department of Livestock calculates an initial loss of $34 million.
A report, Bangladesh: Eastern Flash Flood, prepared by the Inter-Cluster Coordination Group (ICCG) and the Humanitarian Coordination Task Team (HCTT), said that as of August 24, some 928,000 people in nine districts were spending days without power, and 1,807 cell towers were out of service. Floods damaged 462 kilometers of roads across 12 districts.
Over 7,000 schools were closed due to floods, affecting an estimated 1.7 million primary students in the affected districts.
Some 415,273 temporarily displaced people took refuge in 3,654 evacuation shelters in the flood affected districts.
