Islamic Relief is stepping up emergency aid as severe flooding has submerged entire communities in northeast Bangladesh, leaving many families homeless and destitute. Islamic Relief staff report children and elderly people now stranded in the open air under pouring rain.
Three days of extremely heavy rain and flash floods have affected around 1.6 million people in the districts of Sylhet, Sunamganj and Moulvibazar. It comes when the country is only just recovering from Cyclone Remal, which destroyed thousands of homes across Bangladesh in late-May.
Almost 75% of Sylhet district is now flooded, with more than half of the crops and paddy fields in the region submerged under water – which is likely to have lasting impacts on people’s food security.
Islamic Relief has long-term programmes in Sylhet and Sunamganj and is now preparing to distribute dry food, hygiene kits to reduce the spread of water-borne diseases, and cash grants so that people can pay for essentials such as food, shelter and water. The distributions will reach an initial 5000 displaced people and then expand to reach more families over the coming days and weeks.
Enamul Haque, Islamic Relief Programme Manager in Bangladesh says:
Many families, including young children and elderly people, are now sleeping out in the open by the side of roads, with only plastic sheets to protect them from the heavy rain. Their homes have been washed away and they urgently need food, shelter and other aid.
“One of Islamic Relief’s own offices is now under 2 feet of water, but our staff managed to get all our supplies out in time. Roads are also submerged and communications networks are down, which makes it harder to respond and assess the full scale of the destruction.”
The flooding is expected to continue for the next couple of weeks, with flood water coming from upstream in India.
So far around 30,000 people have moved to shelter centres across Sylhet and Sunamganj, with this number expected to increase. In total around 825,000 people are reported to be affected in Sylhet, 650,000 in Sunamganj and 193,000 people in Moulvibazar.
