DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshis are struggling to make a living, with more than 40 percent of the country submerged in water following the worst floods since 1998, officials said Saturday.
As of Saturday 41 people had died from the floods, which has affected more than 5.5 million people out of a population of 166 million since June, according to government data.
“We are continuing relief activities in the flood-hit areas,” Moazzem Hossain, additional secretary at the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, told Arab News. “At present, around 70,000 flood victims are sheltered in 1,452 shelter centers and we will continue this relief support as long as needed.”
The worst-affected areas in the north, northeast and central Bangladesh include Kurigram, Gaibandha, Nilphamari, Rangpur, Lalmonirhat, Natore, Sirajgong, Bogura, Jamalpur, Netrokona, Sylhet, Sunamganj, Munshiganj, Tangail, and Manikganj districts.
Officials said that although the floodwaters had receded, the recovery time could be longer in certain pockets of the country due to waterlogging which would invariably “increase the suffering” of people in several areas.
“Including the two main rivers, Padma and Jamuna, 12 other rivers are now flowing above the danger level,” Arifur Rahman, executive engineer at the flood forecast and warning center at the Water Development Board told Arab News. “The situation is expected to have a better look by the end of this week as floodwater started receding in some areas.”
On the ground, however, residents said the situation was much worse than what was being reported.
“I have been living on the dam for around one month,” Ashek Nizam, a 43-year-old fisherman from Munshiganj district, told Arab News. “The floodwater started inundating our village during night hours and we didn’t get enough time to save our valuables. I just rushed to the nearby dam with my three children and wife.”
He said that the floods had dealt “a double blow” amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. “I had no income since last April due to the COVID-19 pandemic. I don’t know how I can feed my children in the coming days since my annual rice stocks have been washed away by floodwater,” he added.
Abdur Rahman, another flood victim and a farmer from the same area, was distraught and feared a “bleak future” after losing all his cattle to the floods.
“It appeared so quickly that I was not able to save my cattle,” he told Arab News, his voice choking as he spoke. “I have no idea how I can continue my land cultivation in the next dry season.”
Hossain said authorities were assessing the damage and losses caused.
“Authorities will continue the relief support program unless people find the way out of their regular livelihoods. We have enough resources and funds in stock and there is nothing to worry about in this situation unless any other major disaster hits the country.”
Thousands struggle to stay afloat as Bangladesh floods wreak havoc
https://arab.news/jy9wv
Thousands struggle to stay afloat as Bangladesh floods wreak havoc
- As of Saturday 41 people had died from the floods, which has affected more than 5.5 million people
- Officials said that although floodwaters had receded, recovery time could be longer due to waterlogging
India hosts global leaders, tech moguls at AI Impact Summit
- 20 heads of state scheduled to attend event which runs until Feb. 20
- Summit expected to speed up adoption of AI in India’s governance, expert says
NEW DELHI: A global artificial intelligence summit opened in New Delhi on Monday, with representatives of more than 60 countries scheduled to discuss the use and regulation of AI with the industry’s leaders and investors.
The India AI Impact Summit 2026 is hosted by the Indian government’s IndiaAI Mission — an initiative worth in excess of $1 billion and launched by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology in 2024 to develop the AI ecosystem in the country.
After five days of sessions and an accompanying exhibition of 300 companies at Bharat Mandapam — the venue of the 2023 G20 summit — participating leaders are expected to sign a declaration which, according to the organizer, will outline a “shared road map for global AI governance and collaboration.”
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will attend the summit on Friday with French President Emmanuel Macron, said on X it was a “matter of great pride for us that people from around the world are coming to India” for the event, which is evidence that the country is “rapidly advancing in the fields of science and technology and is making a significant contribution to global development.”
Among the 20 heads of state that the Indian Ministry of External Affairs has announced as scheduled to attend are Macron, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo, and Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, Abu Dhabi’s crown prince.
Also expected are tech moguls such as OpenAI CEO Sam Altman and Google’s chief Sundar Pichai.
The summit will give India, the world’s most populous country, a platform to try to steer cooperation and AI regulation between the West and the Global South, and to present to the global audience its own technological development.
“India is leveraging its position as a bridge between emerging and developed economies to bring together not just country leaders and technologists, but also delegates, policy analysts, media, and others … to explore the facets of AI, multilateral collaborations, and the direction that large-scale development of AI should take,” said Anwesha Sen, assistant program manager for technology and policy at Takshashila Institution.
“India is trying to do three things through the AI Impact Summit. One, India is advocating for sovereign AI and the development of inclusive, population-scale solutions. Two, establishing international collaborations that prioritize AI diffusion in sectors like healthcare and agriculture. And three, showcasing how Indian startups and organizations are using frameworks such as that of digital public infrastructure as a model to bridge the two.”
It is the fourth such gathering dedicated to the development of AI. The first one was held in the UK in 2023, a year after the debut of ChatGPT; the 2024 meeting in South Korea; and last year’s event took place in France.
The summit is likely to help the Indian government in speeding up the adoption of AI, according to Nikhil Pahwa, digital rights activist and founder of MediaNama, a mobile and digital news portal, who likened it to the Digital India initiative launched in 2015 to provide digital government services.
“A summit like this, with this much bandwidth allocated to it by the government, even if the agenda is flat, ends up making AI a priority focus for ministries and state governments,” Pahwa told Arab News.
“It encourages diffusion of AI execution-specific thinking and ends up increasing adoption of AI in governance and by both central and state-level ministries. That reduces time for adoption of AI.
“We saw this play out with the government’s Digital India focus: it increased digitization and the adoption of digital technology. The agenda and India’s role in AI globally is less important than speeding up adoption.”
