At least 15 killed in floods, landslides in India’s Meghalaya by floods and landslides caused by this heavy rainfall in the last few days. The effects of monsoon rains have caused many of the villages to be isolated, destroying almost all the roads, and displacing thousands of people who were left stranded and had to abandon their homes. Seven members of a family of five brothers and two sisters, and their mother and one of their two sisters, had lost their lives when a landslide buried a group of people in South Garo Hills district. Some other details are: At least three individuals attempted to flee a flood as their car slid off a slippery road. Some people lost their lives to drowning while navigating the rising floodwaters in a boat. One other person died by a falling tree also.
This is because the rainfall in Meghalaya is expected to last for a longer time hence more frequently landslides and flooding are happening in previously flooded areas. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) issued a weather advisory on a few hours before forecasting another set of rain showers across the state in the next few days, especially in areas that were predicted to experience heavy showers during the next week. Heavy rainfall is defined in terms of the precipitation range between 64.5mm and 115.5mm (3 in and 5 in) because this indicates when associated with a region’s dense and topography can create conditions for landslides and further flash floods.
From Reuters.com, Sanjay Goyal, who is the Commissioner and Secretary of State, Revenue and Disaster Management Department states that ‘the weather conditions that started with the disaster in 2017 have slowly worsened over the years.’ According to this article, this was only followed by a wave of disaster in the same year but has been followed by less severe weather conditions in the subsequent years. In this context he stated: “All bodies have been brought back, and the rescue work has been completed.” He added, “The assistance came in form of law and order officials and ordinary citizens as the team members attempted to rescue those who had been confined in various isolated spots.” The relief efforts as per plan are already in motion and it is aimed at mitigating the human impact due to the earthquake and flood.
For the 15 thousand and 700 persons of 165 villages from which more than half is a resident of the area and which has been forced to be in state relief camp built by the state authorities, all of them have lost their homes. Some areas were inundated and flooding was the source of destruction where certain roads and bridges were destroyed and this makes travel in some places difficult. There has been an aggravation of the challenges by the power outage and the reduction of communication.
Similarly, the impact of the monsoon had been felt even by Meghalaya, which included neighbouring states. In fact, other countries in the region that have their share of the boundary with Meghalaya have also suffered from the same kind of extreme weather conditions. According to the statements from the Bangladesh government on Sunday, six were reported deaths due to the recent floods in the north of the country. Hence, officials in Bangladesh who are responsible for flood control were beginning to express hope that there might be more flooding as they do not expect rain overnight. The people have already started to go to the shelters and to their home, Torofdar Mahmudur Rahman is given the following quote “People are already beginning to leave the shelter and go back to their houses”, he said.
Flooding has affected the crops particularly in north Bangladesh and the northern areas of the country but this picture is still being unveiled. Some large plots of fertile land have become submerged, leading to severe loss of land that will only be felt in the near future, and the loss is something that will affect the lives of the farmers, who before now faced numerous problems due to flooding in the region.
Another example of flooding in South Asia this year is that the recent monsoon season brought the heavy rainfall associated with the flooding described above. In the region, the affected areas are Nepal to Bangladesh with rain resulting in massive floods along with landslides. As a reminder, just the last week in Nepal 245 people including several hundred children were killed when heavy rains led to landslides destroying homes, roads, and power outages. This has caused massive damage to important structures located in the vicinity of the disaster-stricken places.
This disaster was as severe as floods which happened in August in Bangladesh but what this disaster entails Bangladesh cannot ignore. According to the Centre for Policy Dialogue’s research which was published, a total of 70+ people lost their lives, whereas the estimated economic damage from the floods in this country totaled around $1.2 billion. Despite the ongoing monsoon season, there are still ongoing and worsening disaster management in South Asia where climate change makes the occurrence and severity of these disasters more intense.
ㅤㅤ
