The devastating floods are the latest blow for the country of 170 million people, which has recently been hit by deadly political protests and violence. A caretaker government led by Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus took power after Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled the country earlier this month amid a massive student-led uprising.
“These are the worst floods in 30 years,” Liakas Ali, director of climate change at the non-governmental organization BRAC, said in a statement. “People across the country are being stranded and the situation is expected to worsen in many places as the rains continue.”
The government is rushing to deliver food and emergency medical supplies to people trapped in flooded areas. Authorities have opened 3,176 evacuation centres for flood victims and deployed 639 medical teams.
BRAC said rescue efforts were being hampered by communications disruptions, traffic disruptions and flooded roads and highways.
“People didn't have time to save anything,” Ali said: “Entire villages, entire families who lived there and everything they owned – their homes, livestock, farmland, fishing grounds” were swept away.
