Storm Kills 12; Dozens Still Missing - Bangladesh

[From China Daily, 04/12/99]

Bangladesh said yesterday at least 12 people were killed and dozens were missing after a storm swept across the impoverished country cutting power supplies and triggering a water crisis.

Government officials said 54 people were missing and more than 100 were injured after 100 kilometre per hour winds hit southern districts and other parts of the country on Saturday.

"The nor'westers blew at 106 kilometres per hour uprooting electric poles and flattening trees and straw houses," said Moyezuddin Khan, district commissioner of Bhola district on the southern coast.

The officials said those killed were hit by flying debris or died as houses collapsed. Half the deaths were reported from Bhola and the neighbouring districts of Barisal and Patuakhil.

"Water supply to different districts of the country was disrupted due to power failure," said Mahfuzur Rahman, an official of Dhaka Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA). "We were unable to pump water from deep tube wells because of the power failure."

WASA officials earlier said more than 30 per cent of the capital's 9 million residents had no access to drinking water.

On Saturday, hundreds of Dhaka residents stopped trains, attacked a power supply office, barricaded roads and burned vehicles to protest over the water shortage.

Opposition parties, which are campaigning to topple the government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, called strikes in southeastern Chittagong and southern Barguna towns yesterday in protest over the power and drinking water shortages.

Syed Enamul Huq, chairman of Dhaka Electric Supply Authority, said a grid station of the Power Development Board at Siddhirgonj, near Dhaka, and a sub-station at Rathkhola in the city had malfunctioned in the storm.

"Our engineers have already repaired the Siddhirgonj grid station while they are working on the other," Huq told reporters.