Flood situation in Gaibandha and Rangpur districts worsened yesterday as fresh areas went under water.

About 8,000 people were rendered homeless in Rangpur and 25,000 remained marooned in Gaibandha. Floodwaters have swallowed several hundred villages in the two northern districts.

Our Gaibandha correspondent reports: More areas in Gobindaganj and Palashbari upazilas of the district were submerged yesterday as the water level of the river Karotoa rose further.

Surging water engulfed the entire Darbastha union as well as 12 villages under Palashbari upazila, when a 400-foot stretch of Karotoa flood control embankment was breached at

Kanpara.

Fresh cracks have developed at different points along the embankment.

A four-kilometre part of the Ghoraghat-Palashbari road went under water, threatening traffic movement.

Three people sustained injuries in a house collapse at village Annatapur under Gumaniganj union.

According to the upazila fisheries office, floodwaters have washed away fishes of about 2,000 ponds in Palashbari upazila, causing heavy loss to the fish cultivators.

Meanwhile, road communication between Gobindaganj and Dinajpur still remained cut-off, as floodwater overflowed the highway by three to four feet.

Nearly 25,000 people still remained marooned in remote villages of the two upazilas. Most of them took shelter on the nearby embankment with household stuffs and cattle.

As nine Hindu temples in Gobindaganj upazila have been submerged by floodwater, the devotees started Durga Puja yesterday installing the idols on rafts made of banana tree.

Meanwhile, the ground floor of the Gobindaganj Upazila Health Complex went under knee-deep water, seriously disrupting the medical services. Rafts are being used for carrying patients to and from the hospital.

A total of 12 kilometres brick-soled and 20 kilometres earthen roads in the upazila were damaged by the floodwater. Standing crops, including vegetables on 1,500 acres of land, were destroyed completely.

The relief allocation was found to be too scanty to meet the needs of the flood victims. "We have distributed Tk 60,000 among the flood-victims," said Abul Kalam Azad, chairman of Gobindaganj Pourashava.

Our Rangpur correspondent adds: The flash flood caused by incessant rain and water from the upstream India marooned at least 20,000 people of three unions under Badarganj upazila.

At least 2,000 mud houses collapsed, rendering 8,000 people homeless, officials said.

Karotoa, Ghagot, Jamuneshwari and Akhira rivers overflowed, inundating 9,000 hectares of croplands, mostly of aman paddy, the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) sources said.

The homeless people have taken shelter at local schools and madrasas as the government has not opened any flood shelter anywhere in the upazila.

People are suffering from scarcity of food and pure drinking water. The government has distributed 8 tonnes of rice and Tk 10,000 among the flood victims.

Upazila administration sources said they arranged 90 tonnes of rice and Tk 3 lakh on emergency basis for the rehabilitation of the flood affected people.

Political and social organisations are also distributing relief materials among the poor.