Calgary community raising funds to assist victims of flooding in Bangladesh

Volunteers use a boat to help rescue people on a flooded street following heavy rains in Mohipal, Feni, a coastal district in southeast Bangladesh, Friday, Aug. 23, 2024. (AP Photo/Fatima Tuj Johora)

A fundraiser to help the victims of the floods in Bangladesh is being held Sunday in Calgary.

According to one of the event’s organizers, more than 4.5 million people have been directly impacted by the floods, and things are worsening.

“We need funds to send back home to help rescue people and provide them shelter, food, and medicine,” said Topaz Ahmed, in an email to CTV News.

“With the help of all different community organizations, we are spreading our reach to gather more donations to help the country that has had the worst of luck for the last couple of months,” he added.

Friday, The Associated Press reported that floods have wreaked havoc in India’s northeast and the eastern region of Bangladesh, killing 30.

Up to 3 million stranded

Bangladeshi non-government organization BRAC said in a statement that up to three million people remained stranded as fast-moving water inundated vast areas of farmland, destroying livelihoods, homes, and crops. It said many remained without electricity, food or water.

Other media reports said up to 4.5 million people have been affected in the delta nation of 170 million people.

A number of charity groups have called for help, with a student group collecting dry food, cash, water and medicines at Dhaka University in the nation's capital.

Liakath Ali, BRAC's director of Climate Change, Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management, said that these were the worst floods Bangladesh has seen in three decades.

"Entire villages, all of the families who lived in them, and everything they owned -- homes, livestock, farmlands, fisheries -- have been washed away. People had no time to save anything. There are people stranded across the country, and we are expecting the situation to worsen in many places as rains continue," he said.

New breaches on a flood protection embankment in the Gomti River in the eastern district of Cumilla inundated about 100 low-lying villages from Thursday midnight, Dhaka-based The Business Standard newspaper reported Friday. Other districts including Noakhali, Feni and Chattogram were also hard hit.

Volunteers at the scene at Cumilla attempted to alert people to move to safety after the breaches on Thursday midnight, while residents used loudspeakers at neighborhood mosques to relay warnings.

The Calgary event takes place from 10 a.m. to noon at Martindale GuruDuwara.

With files from The Associated Press

AP writer Wasbir Hussain contributed to the report from Guawhati, India.