Dhaka, 20 June: “If the current trend of water-rising in the main rivers and raining in the river basins continue as is the case now, then it is for sure that this year the flooding would be more severe than normal in Bangladesh,” reports one of the major Bangali daily newspapers, The Janakantha, quoting a senior flood expert of the country.

This year in May- June, the water level of Padma and Brahmaputra river basin is higher than that of the corresponding time of the three major floods occurred in ’87, ’88 or ’98.  Apprehending a major flooding in July ‘99, the newspaper reported that the experts are not yet sure whether this year the flooding would be as devastating as it was in 98. 

Comparison of rain-fall this year with the same time span of the previous year shows that this year the rain-fall is much higher than that of the previous year, i.e. in May ’99 it is 2,071 m.m. whereas it was  746 m.m. in May ‘98.  Apart from the raining,  this year the upstream water flow is also higher that that of the same time of the previous year. The experts think that the melting of ice in the Himalayas during the scorching heat in April and excessive rain in May ’99 might be the cause of higher flow of upstream water this year.

It is to be noted that Bangladesh experienced one of the worst flooding of the century in 1998 that lasted about three months, beginning from the middle of July to the end of September, inundating more than two-third of the country.  About 900 people died of the flooding that includes 336 diarrhoeal deaths while about 30 million people were affected. 

More than one million people took refuge in about 2716 flood shelters around the country and total food shortage (crops) caused by the flood was about 2.2 million ton. About 3,900 cows, 7,000 goats, 300,000 chickens died while the total communication system of the country collapsed as about 7, 5 bridges and culverts were affected around the country. 

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