Six people have died after heavy rains caused widespread flooding in India and Bangladesh, local authorities said.
Specifically, as police inspector Jahirul Hiq Bhuyan said, in Bangladesh two people, including a member of the Rohingya Muslim minority, died in landslides caused by heavy rains. He stressed that for security reasons, the huge makeshift camps where Rohingya refugees, who fled from neighboring Myanmar to Bangladesh to escape persecution, live, have been relocated.
The floods have mainly affected the Sylhet region in northeastern Bangladesh, where a total of 1.3 million people have been affected by flash floods, said Abu Ahmed Siddique, a local official. “Their villages, roads and most of their houses have been inundated by the floods,” he added.
Rivers in the region have suddenly risen due to heavy rains in northeastern India, which borders Bangladesh, according to Kamrul Hasan of Bangladesh’s disaster management ministry. Hassan noted that around Sylhet – one of the country’s largest cities – hundreds of shelters have been set up to accommodate those forced to flee their homes.
Bangladesh, a low-lying country of about 170 million people, is among the nations most vulnerable to climate change, according to the Global Climate Risk Index (CRI). Scientists warn that heavier rains during the monsoon season and the accelerated melting of Himalayan glaciers are dramatically raising the levels of the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers.
Meanwhile, in India, at least four people have died in floods in the northeast of the country due to torrential rains in the state of Assam, according to local authorities. Since mid-May, the rains, which have caused floods and landslides, have claimed the lives of 38 people in this state.
Every year, monsoon rains cause massive disasters, but experts say climate change is causing more extreme events. India’s meteorological service has issued warnings for several states, including Assam, citing the possibility of more flash floods.
Sources: APE-MPE, AFP