Roundup: Seasonal flooding hits parts of Bangladesh

Flooding sparked by heavy seasonal rains and onrush of water from hills across the Indian borders have affected parts of Bangladesh and left up to half a million homeless.

Authorities have evacuated residents of hundreds of villages to higher ground in a number of districts that are prone to torrential rains between June and September.

Flood monitoring center in Dhaka said tens of thousands of people were still living in schools, community halls and other relief centers Tuesday.

Floods have caused widespread damage to habitation, crops, roads and highways across vast areas of the country.

More than 500,000 people in hundreds of villages in around a dozen district in the country's north and northeast have been marooned as their homes have gone under up to waist high water. The residents left their houses wading through flooded roads or on boats in search of shelter or a dry ground to live temporarily.

Hundreds of thousands of people have been affected, having suffered loss of crops and vegetables, and infrastructure damage was widespread with many roads and highways submerged and partially eroded or washed away.

In many places, the floods eroded large portions of villages and agricultural land, washed away buildings housing schools and offices.

Though many have been affected by monsoon floods across the country but officials said Tuesday that no disaster-related deaths from injuries or illness were listed so far.

They said water levels could subside in the next few days.

"The overall flood situation in north, north central and north eastern part of the country may likely to improve in next 72 hours, " said Amirul Islam, executive engineer at Flood Forecasting & Warning Centre of Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB).

Among the 83 monitored water level stations, he said, water levels at 19 monitored river stations are flowing above their respective danger marks while four river stations have remained steady.

Ashrafuzzaman, an official of the control room under the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, told Xinhua that flood situation in the country's in a number of districts including Bogra, Gaibandha, Feni, Rangpur, Kurigram, Sirajganj, Shariatpur, Netrokona and Jamalpur in the northern part have been deteriorated, affecting a large number of people.

Plight of millions of people in Bangladesh, criss-crossed by more than 230 rivers, mounts every year as the low-lying South Asian country experiences almost every year seasonal floods whether small or big.

Three months of sustained floods in 1988 left several hundred people dead and caused millions of dollars of damage.

The country was again ravaged by major flooding in 1998 that left millions homeless and caused huge damage.

Experts said Bangladesh, bordering the Bay of Bengal, has become more vulnerable in recent time to climate change related problems like cyclones, flooding, as its capacity to protect its people and land is feeble.

In 2007, two rounds of floods in Bangladesh killed more than 1, 000 people. Endi