The official death toll in flooding rose to 202 Saturday as dozens of fresh drowned reports were recorded in the last couple of days, while the raging floods has submerged at least 35 out of the total 64 districts of Bangladesh and spread to the heart of the capital Dhaka.

According to the Food, Disaster Management and Relief Ministry, the devastating floods that could be the worst since 1998 has affected over 20 million people and caused huge economic loss including damages to 9,181 educational institutions, 27,474 kilometers of roads, 2,089 bridges and culverts, as well as 1,997 kilometers of embankments.

The ministry has allocated 22,102 tons of rice and 30 million Taka (500,000 US dollars) for the flood victims till Friday.

The Health Directorate Control Room source said the water-borne diseases like diarrhea had broken out in many flood affected areas including the adjacent areas of the capital Dhaka.

The bulletin of the control room said some 3,000 people were attacked with diarrhea in the last two days till Friday, but unofficial source estimated the figure as at least 5,000.

Some 3,000 medical teams are now working in the affected areas, but many victims are still facing acute shortage of oral saline, water purification tablets and proper medical services.

The flood situation in the worst affected northern district Sylhet shows signs of improvement as the flood waters are receding due to fall of water level of its surrounding rivers, and the flight between Dhaka and Sylhet resumed on Friday.

The situation in central Bangladesh including greater Dhaka area, however continued to deteriorate further due to continuous rise of waters as a result of onrush from the upper reaches.

Low-lying areas in eastern and western part of Dhaka city are being deluged by swelling water from the rising rivers, causing great suffering of the urban residents and some slum dwellers had to move to higher place to build makeshift house.

Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority has installed more pumps to drain out stinky water from inside the city, but their facilities are apparently not adequate to deal with the situation.

The bulletin of Flood Control and Warning Center mentioned on Friday that Brahmapurtra and Ganges river continued to rise, worsening the flood situation in the central region of the country, as branch rivers flowed above danger mark at 31 points.

Main opposition party the Awami League (AL) Friday withdrew the countrywide hartal proposed for Saturday, considering the public suffering due to the worsening flood situation, and the AL leaders also demanded immediate government relief for affected people.

The United States Agency for International Development has decided to immediately provide 50,000 dollars to assist the government in flood relief efforts.

Source: Xinhua