The flood death toll in Bangladesh climbed to 216 with the addition of 16 more deaths Friday as rivers in the north and central regions retreated further in the last 24 hours exposing a barren land, officials said, according to dpa. The national Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said the rivers Brahmaputra and Teesta dropped further radically improving the situation in the northern region of Rangpur which was the worst-hit area in the rain fed inundations. Homeless people were also trudging back to their sedimentary villages in central and north eastern Bangladesh as the Ganges and the Surma fell while water levels in other rivers stopped rising. "The seasonal floods are definitely receding across the country leaving in its wake a trail of devastation," said Saiful Hossain of the national Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre. However, Hossain warned that the country might face another tropical flood at the end of August or early September in the dying days of the monsoon. The death toll rose to 216 due to fresh incidents of drowning and in outbreaks of diarrhoea and cholera in marooned villages. The international hospital for cholera in Dhaka reported a sudden rise of patients every day suffering from water borne diseases. Flood waters inundated 38 administrative districts which constituted half the country, the Disaster Management Office said. Over 10 million people were hit by the flood which destroyed over a million homes, 2800 km of roads and another 6,000 kilometres of embankment. Emergency imports were ordered for rice from India after thousands of hectares of the staple diet were lost to seasonal flooding. Heavy rains triggered by an active monsoon and mountain torrents from across the border in India forced rivers to swell in Bangladesh from late July.
