'Everything is under water': Bangladesh flood death toll rises

The death toll from flash floods in Bangladesh has risen, with at least 15 dead and dozens injured. thousands of people affected as the country recovers from weeks of political upheaval.

Local authorities on Friday counted 190,000 people in emergency shelters and estimated that 4.5 million Bangladeshis had seen their daily lives affected by the floods. , which strike this nation of 170 million inhabitants, regularly ravaged at monsoon time.

“The situation is catastrophic,” Zahed Hossain Bhuiya, a 35-year-old volunteer rescuer in Feni, a town of about 160,000 people that was the worst hit, told AFP. “We are trying to save as many people as possible.”

“Everything is under water!” said Nur Islam, a 60-year-old shopkeeper in Feni whose house was submerged.

– High vulnerability –

Bangladesh's Ministry of Disaster Management said in a bulletin that the latest death toll of 15 included deaths in localities along the southeastern coast.

Floods in Feni, August 23, 2024 in Bangladesh © AFP – Munir UZ ZAMAN

These include Chittagong, the main port city, and Cox's Bazar, a district where nearly a million Rohingya refugees from neighboring Myanmar live.

Areas east of the capital Dhaka have also suffered badly, particularly the town of Comilla, near the border with the Indian state of Tripura.

Much of Bangladesh, which is drained by hundreds of rivers, is made up of deltas into which the great Himalayan rivers, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, flow into the sea after crossing India.

It is one of the countries most vulnerable to disasters linked to climate change. Monsoon rains cause considerable damage there each year, but global warming is increasing their scale and frequency.

According to Bangladeshi media, all the main tributaries of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra have overflowed.

– Diplomatic tensions –

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The floods come less than three weeks after Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was ousted and forced to flee to India, her government's main political backer, following a student-led uprising.

Hasina was replaced by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, who has led an interim government since August 8 to implement democratic reforms.

Residents in a flooded street in Feni, Bangladesh, on August 23, 2024 © AFP – MUNIR UZ ZAMAN

Asif Mahmud, one of the leaders of the student protests and now part of Mr Yunus's team as sports chief, accused New Delhi on Wednesday of “causing a flood” by deliberately releasing water from dams.

India's foreign ministry rejected the allegations, saying India had experienced the “heaviest rainfall of the year” this week and that the flow downstream was due to “automatic releases”.

Hundreds of people gathered at Dhaka University on Friday to protest New Delhi's “water aggression”. A banner unfurled at the rally showed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi cheering at the sight of people drowning.

“The water from India has washed away all our euphoria,” activist and poet Saikat Amin told AFP on the sidelines of the protest.

– More than 23 dead in India –

The torrential rains have not spared the population on the Indian side of the border.

An aerial view of the town of Feni in Bangladesh after floods, August 23, 2024 © AFP – Munir UZ ZAMAN

In the state of Tripura, in northeastern India, more than 23 people have died since Monday: they lost their lives following landslides, while others drowned, said Sarat Kumad Das, head of the state disaster agency.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha said the situation there was “still worrying,” adding that relief operations were continuing in the worst-hit areas of the state, starting with the village of Bagafa.

“Food is being distributed locally and we are exploring the possibility of airlifting supplies,” he said in a statement.

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