0.78m marooned as flood deteriorates in N dists

Over 0.78 million (7.8 lakh) people have so far been marooned following further deterioration of flood situation due to inundation of fresh areas in the Brahmaputra basin during the past 24 hours till 6am on Friday. Besides, erosion has damaged over 20,000 houses totally or partially and standing crops on 62,000 hectares of land have been submerged in Kurigram, Gaibandha, Bogra, Sirajganj, Nilphamari and Lalmonirhat districts, officials sources said. Officials in Water Development Board (WDB) said, the major rivers were flowing above the danger mark (DM) at 8 points in these districts following further rise in their water levels due to huge onrush of floodwater from the upstream. The erosion has taken serious turn at places and the WDB authorities have been conducting emergency protection works at the damaged points of flood control embankments. Following further rise in the water level, the Brahmaputra River was flowing above the DM by 49cm at Chilmari and 24cm at Fulchhari though it was flowing only 3cm below the DM Noonkhawa points at 6am on Friday. Due to similar reason, the Jamuna was flowing above its DM by 70cm at Bahadurabad, 97cm at Sariakandi, 41cm at Sirajganj and 12cm at Aricha points respectively. The Ghaghot marked further rise by 14cm during the past 24 hours and was flowing 64cm above the DM at Gaibandha point at 6am inundating fresh low-lying areas in the district, according to BSS.