DHAKA \u2013 Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential monsoon rain have killed at least 44 people in south-eastern Bangladesh and left more than a million stranded as the authorities raced on July 11 to deliver aid to devastated communities.<\/p>\n
The Disaster Management Ministry said on July 11 that flooding across seven districts \u2013 Chattogram, Cox\u2019s Bazar, Bandarban, Rangamati, Khagrachhari, Moulvibazar and Habiganj \u2013 has disrupted daily life, isolated thousands of families and stranded 267,918 households.<\/p>\n
Power outages, damaged roads and broken communication links have slowed rescue and relief efforts. Many residents have been unable to cook for days as flood waters submerged their homes, while others are struggling after thick layers of mud covered kitchens and living spaces.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is still water inside our home and we have no way to cook. The dry food we had has run out, and we spend the nights in the dark with our children because there is no electricity,\u201d said Nurul Islam, a resident of a flood-hit area in Chattogram.<\/p>\n
Thousands of families are relying on dry food \u2013 flattened rice, puffed rice or biscuits that do not require cooking \u2013 and emergency relief. Washed-out roads and damaged bridges, however, have made it difficult for aid workers to reach some of the hardest-hit communities.<\/p>\n
Army and navy personnel are ferrying food, drinking water, medicine and other essential supplies by boat to isolated communities, as the authorities step up relief efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government is doing everything possible to support flood victims. Relief, safe drinking water and medical supplies are being distributed, and we urge people whose homes have been inundated to move to the nearest shelter,\u201d Disaster Management and Relief Minister Iqbal Hossain said during a visit to affected areas in Chattogram.<\/p>\n
The heavy rain also triggered landslides<\/a> in Rohingya refugee camps in Cox\u2019s Bazar<\/a> earlier this week, killing 16 refugees, including women and children. More than one million Rohingya refugees live in the camps, where makeshift shelters on steep, deforested hillsides are especially vulnerable during the monsoon season.<\/p>\n Bangladesh is one of the world\u2019s most disaster-prone countries, with seasonal monsoon rains regularly causing floods, river erosion and landslides. Scientists say climate change is making extreme rainfall more frequent and intense, increasing the scale and severity of such disasters. REUTERS<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DHAKA \u2013 Floods and landslides triggered by days of torrential monsoon rain have killed at least 44 people…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":794781,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[64,63,75,128],"class_list":["post-794780","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-environment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-environment","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794780","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=794780"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/794780\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/794781"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=794780"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=794780"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=794780"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}