Despite widespread flooding and devastation, relief supplies remained far less than the need in the flood-hit areas, leaving marooned people, including a vast number of children, hungry while flood engulfed new areas in the 13 north and north-east districts until Tuesday.

Flood refugees at hundreds of shelters struggled to manage a meal once a day as most of the shelters did not get any relief supplies, even in Sylhet city, six days after the monsoon deluge hit amid severe weather conditions.

Even the prime minister Sheikh Hasina at a meeting at the Sylhet circuit house during her visit to some flood-affected areas on Tuesday heard Sylhet City Corporation mayor Ariful Haque Choudhury complaining about low relief supplies.

Victims at shelters continued to drink floodwater as the government relief supplies for many areas came without drinking water and water purification tablets.

The conditions in which hundreds of thousands of stranded people are living continued to remain unknown, while staying in flood shelters, filled with strong stench from open defecation, according to victims, felt like living in hell.

Many could not bear living in this sub-human condition at flood shelters, crammed with men, women, children and livestock, and returned home on Tuesday, particularly in upstream areas where floodwater slightly receded.

For the first time since the latest wave of flood hit, the government on Tuesday said that 36 people were killed due to reasons associated with flooding in the north and north-eastern regions since May 17, when the previous flash floods ravaged the north-eastern part of the country.

The flood death toll officially announced on Tuesday did not match field reports.

The Sylhet divisional commission office confirmed 22 deaths in the division since June 19 while the government centrally confirmed 18 deaths in the division in two floods since May 17.

‘People started leaving flood shelters already because it is not humanly possible to live there,’ Abdul Wahid, chair, Pandargaon union parishad, Doarabazar upazila, Sunamganj, told--.

Pandargaon union is one of the places where rushing water from the upstream strike first. Three-fourths of the union, which is also one of the places to see floodwater recede first, is still under water despite a fall in floodwater level in the upstream.   

Like the rest of Sylhet and Sunamganj divisions, there has been no dry land to be seen in Pandargaon for five days after extreme heavy rain upstream triggered the monsoon deluge on June 16, officially affecting 45 lakh people in Sylhet division until Monday.

The few houses, mostly with earthen floor, that saw floodwater recede sat on layers of mud amid intermittent heavy downpour.

‘People preferred looking after what is left of their belongings back at home than dying in these hells of flood shelters,’ said Wahid.

There still are 2,000 people at 15 shelters in Pandargaon, home to 35,000 people. The government sent only 5.5 tonnes of rice for the entire union and nothing else.

The supply of relief was so low that Wahid was compelled to break the government policy of not giving less than 10 kgs of relief rice per head in order to have more people get something to eat. Wahid gave four to five kgs of rice per head.

‘The relief supply is too low and 80 per cent of the affected people are drinking floodwater,’ said Wahid.

Drinking water sources are mostly submerged even in Sylhet city where piped water reservoirs are underground.   

Cooking was not an option for many flood-affected people as the continued flooding and relentless rain drenched their supply of firewood while others could not get a refill of their LPG cylinders.

Shamim Ahmed, chair, Companyganj upazila parishad, Sylhet, warned that the situation might turn further grave if relief supply was not immediately increased.

For eight lakh flood affected people, Shamim received only 30 tonnes of rice in relief supply.

Similar complaint of inadequate relied supply came from three other upazilas contacted by New Age. The government officials responsible for distributing relief in the areas however maintained that the supply was enough.

‘The supply was definitely enough,’ said Debajit Singha, additional divisional commissioner, Sylhet.

For 45 lakh people, who are almost equally affected by the flood irrespective of their social position as they all have been cut-off from any kind of communication for at least three days, the government has so far released only 1,297 tonnes of rice, 23,500 packets of dry food, 9.5 lakh water purifying tablets and Tk 2.48 crore in cash aid.

As water was draining slowly, flood spread to more areas in north, north-east and central Bangladesh, affecting thousands more people.    

An estimated 20 lakh people have been affected in Habiganj and Moulvibazar over the past two to three days.

Authorities did not even open flood shelters in most of the affected areas in the north where over four lakh people have been affected by floods in Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Nilpahamri, Rangpur and Gaibandha, reported the ----- correspondent in Lalmonirhat.

Kurigram is the worst-hit district accounting for half of the flood victims in the north. And half of those affected by the flood in Kurigram are now living on embankments or roads, mostly in polythene tents or under the open sky.

The daily disaster report by the disaster management ministry showed that the flood-affected people in the north were given only Tk 25 lakh in cash and 7,000 packets of dry food.  

The report said that the government had so far allocated 2,220 tonnes of rice, Tk 3.86 crore and 71,000 packets of dry foods for 11 flood-affected districts in the north and north-east, stating that there are 13 districts affected by the ongoing flood.

While all the major rivers swelled on Tuesday, the Surma continued to flow at a record-high level at Derai in Sunamganj for the third consecutive day on Monday with its water level still rising.

Sylhet and Sunamganj districts still remained mostly without power and cut-off from road communication.

According to the daily flood bulletin issued by the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre on Tuesday, eight major rivers flowed above the danger mark at 17 points in nine districts.

The rivers flowing over the danger limit are the Brahmaputra, Teesta, Dharla, Ghaghat, Jamuna, Someshwari, Surma, Kushiyara, and Khowai.

The flood warning centre said that the situation may improve in Sylhet division because of a let-up over the next 48 hours.

But the flood situation may worsen in Kishoreganj, Bogura, Sirajganj and Tangail. The flood situation in Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari and Rangpur may become stabile, the FFWC report said.

But the central parts of Bangladesh such as Shariatpur, Faridpur and Rajbari may get affected by floods today, renewing the fear of the ongoing flood lingering.

State-run news agency Banladesh Sangbad Sangstha reported that agriculture minister Abdur Razzaque said that the ongoing floods had so far affected the aus paddy on about 56,000 hectares of land across the country.

New Agency UNB reported that food minister Sadhan Chandra Majumder said that there would be no food crisis in the country due to the ongoing flood in the north-eastern region of the country.