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of the four days due to the persistent rainfall finally broke.

Since yesterday morning, hundreds of farmers and children were seen busy threshing, drying and boiling paddy.

“Now that we have the sun, it will help us reduce our losses,” said farmer Roish Uddin.

Paddy dries in a day if there is enough sunlight. “But we were not in luck for long,” he added.

Sitting beside his submerged land in Medar Beel of Kalmakanda in Netrokona, farmer Abdul Hai said: “The weather is improving, but everything is already lost for me.”

Out of ten acres, he managed to harvest two acres, and the rest are underwater.

“I don’t feel like staying at home. I am sitting here with the hope that the weather improves and my paddy will reappear,” he said.

Though the weather was favourable all day, thousands of farmers struggled to harvest paddy due to the shortage of agricultural labourers.

Take the case of Jahir Uddin, an elderly farmer of Korchar Haor in Jogairgaon village in Sunamganj Sadar Upazila.

He harvested more than 100 sacks of paddy, but the sacks remain unopened as the family has no money to employ labourers to do the job.

“We hope that the weather continues like this and we can dry the paddy,” said Jahir, whose wife, Rebeka Begum, is helping him dry paddy.

With no sunshine for eight days, the paddy they had harvested started sprouting.

“As the sun showed up in the sky today [Thursday], we are trying to dry as much as possible,” Rebeka said.

The relief, however, may not last, according to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre (FFWC) and Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD).

The BMD yesterday issued a warning of heavy (44-88mm) to very heavy (over 88mm) rainfall over the Sylhet and Mymensingh divisions in the next 48 hours starting 1:00 pm Thursday.

In a bulletin issued yesterday, FFWC said there could be heavy to very heavy rainfall over the haor region in the next seven days and the flood situation could deteriorate.

Rainfall data shows no heavy rain recorded in the Haor regions or the Indian upstream areas. The water level at Manu in Moulvibazar has receded below the pre-monsoon danger level, though four other rivers show a slight rise.

According to the FFWC, the Khowai River in Habiganj and Someshwari, Bhugai-Kangsha and Mogra rivers in Netrokona are flowing slightly above the danger mark at 3:00 pm yesterday.

With the projection of heavy to very heavy rainfall, the FFWC forecasts the Kushiyara may breach the danger level soon and the Surma will approach the danger mark by Sunday, flooding more low-lying areas in Sylhet and Sunamganj.

The Baulai River at Khaliajuri may also cross the danger mark as early as Saturday, worsening conditions in Netrokona.

With no significant rainfall in the northeast region and upstream of India, the rivers showed a good sign of receding or standing still, said Partho Protim Barua, sub-divisional engineer of the FFWC.

While there is a forecast of rainfall in the coming days, the situation will not deteriorate anytime soon, he added.

[Our correspondents Dwoha Chowdhury, Mintu Deshwara, Jaydul Islam and Tafsilul Aziz contributed to the report]