Children wade through knee-high water on a village road at Satpoa union under Sarishabari in Jamalpur on Thursday as floodwater continues to inundate central regions of the country. — Star Mail photo

Nearly a million people have been affected in a dozen of districts by floods triggered by torrential rains upstream, according to a primary flood report of the Department of Disaster Management.

Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in its daily flood brief said on Thursday that flood situation deteriorated in central districts, namely Manikganj, Rajbari, Faridpur and Tangail.

The FFWC said that the Padma River may cross the danger limit at Bhagyakul of Munshiganj by Friday morning as the river would continue to swell through Saturday.

‘The embankment protecting parts of Bhuyanpur and Tangail developed several leakages as the water pressure on it increased with the Jamuna swelling,’ said Sirajul Islam, executive engineer of Water Development Board in Tangail.

Last year floods washed away 50 metres of the embankment inundating a vast area in Bhuyanpur district.

The embankment was repaired but still remained susceptible to unusual increase of water pressure because of poor repairmen work.

Siraj said that they were working hard to prevent the embankment from collapsing.

The Jamuna and its tributaries were flowing above the danger level at nine points at Kurigram, Jamalpur, Gaibandha, Bogura, Sirajganj, and Tangail.

The Jamuna is flowing more than half a metre above the danger levels at five points and close to half a metre at the rest of the points.

The FFWC said that the Jamuna seemed stabilised and it may stay in the state until Thursday.

About 23,000 people have been affected by floods in seven upazilas of Tangail districts, estimated the DDM report.

Jamalpur emerged as the worst affected district with 3,08,184 people affected in 64,252 families in six upazilas in 68 villages.

Over 1 lakh people have been affected in Sirajganj, Sylhet and Gaibandha districts.

The DDM report said that 9,99,048 people of 3,35,330 families were affected by floods in 12 districts.

It said that 444 unions were grappling with swelling rivers spilling their banks with many trying to prevent waters from entering their houses and croplands by building temporary embankments on their own.

The FFWC said that the Dharla, Ghaghat and Surma were also flowing above their danger marks at five points.

Although heavy rains inside Bangladesh are not responsible for causing rivers to swell to dangerous levels, it may aggravate the situation when the rivers are flowing high, it said.

After a gap of two days, heavy to very heavy rains were recorded in parts of Bangladesh in 24 hours until 9:00am on Thursday.

The FFWC recorded the country’s highest 266mm rainfall at Chhatak while over 100mm at Sunamganj, Kanaighat, Sylhet, Sherpur, Sylhet and Lalmonirhat.

The FFWC said that 110mm rain was recorded at Cherapunji during the same time.

The FFWC said that seven rivers were flowing above their danger levels at 16 points until 9:00am Thursday.

Bangladesh Meteorological Department said it recorded the country’s highest rainfall of 202mm at Dimla Rangpur in 24 hours until 9:00am Thursday.

It predicted heavy to very heavy rainfall in the Rangpur, Mymensingh and Sylhet divisions until 10:00am Friday.

India continued to experience heavy rains with flood wreaking havoc in Assam and Meghalaya.

India Meteorological Department predicted widespread rains in areas such as Assam and Meghalaya, West Bengal and Sikkim, Bihar and East Uttar Pradesh through next Monday.