FLOODS wreaked more havoc in Bangladesh’s eastern region and the north-east of India today, raising this week’s total death toll to 30.

The heavy rains eased in many parts of Bangladesh today and weather officials in Dhaka said the waters had started receding in some areas, but said the flooding would not be over for days.

A disaster management official in India’s Tripura state said that eight more people had died, adding 19 to the death toll since Monday.

In Bangladesh, the Dhaka-based Ekhon TV channel reported that seven more people had died due to the floods. Earlier, four deaths were reported in raging waters flooding downstream from India, and amid incessant rains in the country’s eastern region.

Non-government organisation, the Bangladesh Rehabilitation Assistance Committee (Brac), said in a statement that up to 3 million people remained stranded as fast-moving water inundated vast areas of farmland, destroying livelihoods, homes and crops. 

It said that many remained without electricity, food or water. Other media reports said up to 4.5 million people have been affected in the delta nation of 170 million people.

A number of charity groups have called for help, with a student group collecting dry food, cash, water and medicines at Dhaka University in the nation’s capital.

In the Indian state of Tripura, authorities said that about 100,000 people took shelter in over 400 relief camps, as the floods affected 1.7 million people in eight districts of the state. 

Brac’s climate change, urban development and disaster risk management director Liakath Ali said that these were the worst floods Bangladesh had seen in three decades.

“Entire villages, all of the families who lived in them and everything they owned — homes, livestock, farmlands, fisheries — have been washed away. People had no time to save anything.”

He said: “There are people stranded across the country and we are expecting the situation to worsen in many places as rains continue.”