Shawdehs Desk:

The flood situation in the country’s northeastern district of Sherpur has worsened further as eight more unions in Nakla and Sadar upazilas have been inundated.

The death toll from the flood in the district stood at five as bodies of two brothers, who went missing in the flood, were retrieved in Nannir Kutubakura area under Nalitabari upazila on Saturday evening.

Currently, some two lakh people in Nalitabari, Jhenaigati, Sreebardi, Nakla and Sadar upazilas of the district are stranded.

The water in the River Bhogai was flowing above the danger level at Nakugaon point of the district on Sunday morning.

According to Roads and Highways Department sources, water is flowing over Nalitabari-Nakla road due to the rise in the water level in the low-lying areas. Vehicular movement on the Sherpur-Nalitabari road via Gazirkhamar has been suspended since Saturday due to flooding.

The RHD is trying to resume communication on the Nalitabari-Sherpur via Tinani road temporarily by dumping sand bags on Sunday after a day of disruption due to floods in Ranigaon area.

Sources said upazila administrations of Naliatabari and Jhenaigati have been preparing a list of damages as hundreds of homes, structures, croplands were damaged and fish enclosures were washed away, causing a huge amount of loss.

D Sukolpa Das, deputy director of Department of Agricultural Extension in the district, said that Aman paddy planted on 35,000 hectares of land and vegetables of 10,000 hectares of land were damaged.

The extent of damages caused by the flood will be determined once the waters recede, he said.

District Water Development’s executive engineer Nakibuzzaman Khan said that the flood situation in the district will improve by Monday as water in all the rivers will decrease.

Sherpur deputy commissioner Torofdar Mahmudur Rahman said that they had already distributed bags of relief aid among the flood-hit people and rescue operations by the Army and Bangladesh Border Guard personnel was on.

He said that work on preparing the list of flood-victims was on.