The army has been deployed to protect the Gumti dam and local people in Lalmonirhat are keeping a threatened embankment under close watch. People in at least 17 districts are also facing an acute shortage of food and medicine.

Our Comilla correspondent reports that floodwater threatened the Gumti embankment in the district on Tuesday as breaches developed in at least 20 points of the embankment due to strong current in the river Gumti.

Engineers of the Water Development Board (WDB) and army personnel were working to fortify the embankment by dumping sand-bags at the vulnerable points, officials said.

Several thousand people from the nearby areas took shelter on the embankment, as floodwater submerged the low lying areas in Buriganga, Devidwar and Daudkandi upazila of the district.

Area Commander of Comilla Cantonment Major General Masud Uddin Chowdhury yesterday visited the affected places.

In Gaibandha, onrush of floodwater from the upper catchment along Teesta, Ghagot and Brahmaputra basins engulfed vast tracts of land overflowing the riverbanks.

Over 50,000 people in different char areas along the Brahmaputra basin have been marooned following sharp rise in water level.

The executive engineer (WDB), Gaibandha, said water level at all points of the Ghagot, Teesta and Brahmatpura was rising continuously.

Parts of embankments were washed away by flood water at many points.

Our Lalmonirhat correspondent reports that incessant rain and onrush of water from hills have worsened the flood situation in the 17 unions of the district.

About 25 thousand people around the Teesta embankment and char areas are marooned and facing shortage of food and medicine. Rescue boats could not reach those areas owing to the strong current of the Teesta.

Local people are trying to protect the flood protection embankment at Moshiskhocha bazar in Aditmari upazila as the embankment is threatened by heavy rush of water.

In Kurigram, the overall flood situation has worsened further as water from the rain-swollen Dharla inundated low-lying areas of 48 unions and 150 chars, leaving some 50,000 people marooned.

Water level in the river rose by 61cm and was flowing 31cm above the danger mark at Dharla ferryghat point yesterday morning, officials at the WDB said.

Witnesses said thousands of people in the vicinity of the rivers were leaving their homesteads.

Our Sirajganj correspondent reports that floodwater washed away a 200-metre stretch of the embankment at Abikhola in Kaupur upazila, and inundated vast areas of 30 villages in Kazipara and Sadar upazila.

At least 10,000 houses have been damaged by floodwater.