DHAKA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A Bangladeshi minister said on Wednesday that there is possibility of "high magnitude flooding" in the country amid moderate to heavy rain which has led to further elevated rivers and canals.
"There is possibility of high magnitude flooding in the second half of August," Water Resources Minister Anisul Islam Mahmud told reporters.
He said the country has been experiencing an increasingly intense rainfall over the last weeks.
"We've been warned of a high magnitude flooding. And we've also been instructed to take all relevant measures to face any adverse situation," Mahmud said after meeting senior government officials in Dhaka.
Regarding inundation of places in capital Dhaka and southeastern seaport city Chittagong this week, the minister said that's not a flood. "Heavy rain triggered waterlogging in Dhaka and Chittagong."
The country's meteorological office said it recorded 67 mm of rainfall in 24 hours till Wednesday afternoon.
Monsoon is fairly active over Bangladesh and moderate over North Bay, it said in a statement.
Plight to millions of people in Bangladesh mount as the low-lying Bangladesh experiences almost every year small or big floods, as monsoon rains that sweep the subcontinent from June to September combine with snow melt from the Himalayas in major rivers that run through the country to the Bay of Bengal.
Experts said Bangladesh, bordering the Bay of Bengal, has become more vulnerable to climate change-related problems like cyclones, flooding, as its capacity to protect its people and land is feeble.
In 2007, two floods in Bangladesh killed more than 1,000 people.
