A Bangladeshi man carries his son as he wades through chest-deep waters at a flooded village near Sylhet 300km (186 miles) from the capital Dhaka photo: REUTERS/Rafiqur Rahman, Courtesy of www.alertnet.org
'Farmers have lost rice seedlings and are worried about the shortage of fodder and safe places for their domestic animals.'

The death toll is rising, there is a shortage of drinking water, disease is spreading and millions of people have been marooned or made homeless.

Farmers in Saturia and Manikganj districts near Dhaka have lost most of their crops and many are cut off as roads have become impassable.

The Gono Kalayan Trust (GKT), which works to improve the incomes of poor farmers and is supported by Christian Aid, is helping to evacuate people stranded by the rising waters - even though its own offices have been flooded.

GKT is helping people to build makeshift shelters and dig latrines. They are also handing out water purification tablets, rehydration salts, medicine and food.

Further south, about 13,000 families in the low-lying regions of Madaripur and Shariotpur are being helped by Gono Unnayan Prochesta (GUP), another organisation backed by Christian Aid, which normally runs education and training programmes and other projects to reduce poverty.

GUP staff report that people are very frightened. Erosion is causing huge problems with rivers, sweeping away large tracts of land and houses.

Christian Aid partner UBINIG, a campaigning organisation focussing on agriculture, reports that half of the 14 regions where it works are experiencing problems, including a lack of drinking water and damage to wells.

Farmers have lost rice seedlings and are worried about the shortage of fodder and safe places for their domestic animals. UBINIG will be supplying them with seeds so that they can replant their crops as soon as the floods recede.

In the meantime, they are offering medical help and shelter, repairing village wells and treating sick livestock.

In Sylhet, where flooding was first reported, water levels began to fall in some locations, but staff at Friends in Village Development Bangladesh (FIVDB), which runs health, education, and poverty-reduction programmes, now report that the waters are rising again.

More than 60 people have died in the Sylhet area alone and many roads, markets, rice seedbeds and crops are under water. FIVDB is distributing rice, lentils, oil, salt, oral rehydration salts and matches to marooned families. Longer-term work will include assistance for replanting crops and rebuilding homes.