Bangladesh flood death toll rises to 65
Posted: 03 August 2007 1813 hrs

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DHAKA: The death toll from floods in Bangladesh rose to 65 on Friday as relief workers struggled to reach millions of people stranded in their villages without food or clean water, officials said.

Some 23 of the country's 64 districts in the north, centre and east were at least partly submerged by the flooding caused by snowmelt and heavy monsoon downpours upstream in northeastern India, said Saiful Islam of the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre.

Disaster management minister Tapan Chowdhury said thousands of army and civilian personnel had been mobilised.

At least 11 more deaths were reported Friday taking the death toll to 65, said Golam Kibria, the ministry's senior information officer.

Around 6.9 million people were either displaced or marooned in villages, he said, adding that of those an estimated 200,000 had taken shelter in government shelters.

"We are distributing dried food to people by boat but in some places we cannot reach people because of lack of boats so we are making rafts by cutting banana trees," said district relief officer Abul Khaer in northern Sirajganj district.

The army, local groups and international organisations were also helping to distribute relief materials including water purification tablets, he added.

In central Manikganj district, however, officials were running out of essential supplies such as biscuits and other dried foods, said district administration commissioner Ataur Rahman.

"The affected people are not in a condition to come to the relief centres because of the water but we are reaching some by boats," he said.

The level of the Jamuna river, known as Brahmaputra in India, had begun to drop in northern areas bringing hope that the flood water would soon start to recede, the Flood Centre said in its latest forecast.

But in the Padma river, the Ganges in India, levels were still rising and likely to further aggravate the situation in central Bangladesh, it added.

Last month, landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 126 people in the southeastern city of Chittagong on the Bay of Bengal.

At least a fifth of flood-prone Bangladesh is inundated each year. The low-lying country is criss-crossed by a network of 230 rivers.

In 2004, floods killed more than 700 people and 38 per cent of the country was under water, forcing millions to flee their homes. - AFP/ac