Wading through chest-deep muddy water, hundreds of people slowly make their way to safety, their belongings held high above their heads to keep them dry.
Driving into the city of Feni in southeastern Bangladesh, it is easy to see why it is being described as the epicentre of one of the worst floods ever to hit the country. Since Wednesday night, floodwaters have inundated 11 districts and large swathes of the city of nearly 1.5 million people are now submerged.
Bangladesh lives off its rivers and waterways, with people depending on fishing and growing rice fields as a vital resource. The country is also well-accustomed to floods and cyclones, especially in recent years, as scientists say human-caused climate change is making extreme weather worse.
But the flood took them by surprise – and people here are blaming the Indian authorities.
Dozens of people CNN spoke to in Feni – just a few miles from the Indian border – accused New Delhi of releasing water from the Dumbur dam in neighboring Tripura state without warning.
As we waded past their houses, some people shouted, “We hate India” and “This is Indian water.”
“They opened the door, but no information was given,” said Shoriful Islam, 29, an IT worker who returned to his hometown from the capital Dhaka to volunteer for the rescue operation.
India has denied that the dam release was deliberate and said excessive rain was the cause – although it has admitted that a power outage and a communications blackout prevented it from issuing the usual warning to downstream neighbours.
“India used a water weapon,” Islam said. “India is taking revenge for the destruction of the last government.”
“I don’t know if they are alive.”
CNN joined two volunteer-led missions to provide relief and rescue vulnerable people in Feni.
The only way in or out of the flooded area is by boat. All major roads are completely cut off to vehicles and rescue efforts are hampered by the lack of electricity and the near-total blackout of communications in the city.
The army and navy have been mobilised to coordinate relief operations, and a nationwide volunteer effort has sprung up in recent days, with people arriving from Dhaka and other parts of the country to help with rescues and aid distribution.
Some of them also return to their hometowns to search for their family members.
Abdus Salam, a 35-year-old volunteer who usually works as an English teacher in Dhaka, said 12 members of his family are stranded in a rural area 25 kilometres from the centre of Feni, including his two sisters, his brother and their children.
“I don’t know if they’re still alive,” he told CNN. “I cry a lot.”
“There is no electricity, no gas, no internet,” he added, calling on the international community to send help.
Nearly 5 million people have been affected by flooding in Bangladesh, and at least 18 people have been killed – but the figure is feared to rise dramatically as floodwaters recede.
In neighboring India, authorities say at least 26 people have been killed and more than 64,000 are seeking shelter in relief camps in the Tripura region.
Not an ordinary flood
Anger is now growing among flood victims in Bangladesh over the source of the water that has inundated their homes.
Pranay Verma, India’s high commissioner to Bangladesh, told the caretaker government of Bangladesh that an “automatic release” had occurred at the dam due to high water levels, according to caretaker government spokesman Shafiqul Alam.
But some believe politics played a role.
“India has shown inhumanity by opening the dam without warning,” said Nahid Islam, one of two student representatives in Bangladesh’s interim government, led by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus.
Three weeks ago, Bangladesh ousted its longtime prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, after a student-led protest movement against job quotas morphed into a nationwide movement to force her from power when she ordered a bloody crackdown that killed hundreds.
Hasina fled by helicopter to India on August 5 after tens of thousands of people protested the capital and her residence. During her 15 years in power, Hasina has forged close ties with India and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is now in his third term, a rarity.
Following her ouster, reports emerged of reprisal attacks on people seen as loyal to Hasina’s party – many of them Hindus – sparking widespread concern in neighbouring Hindu-majority India.
India’s external affairs ministry said in a statement on Thursday that it was “not correct” to attribute the floods to water released from the Dumbur dam.
According to the report, the floods in Bangladesh were “primarily” caused by water from large catchment areas of the Gumti River, downstream of the dam.
“Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a common problem which is causing suffering to people on both sides and requires close mutual cooperation to resolve them,” the statement said.
“They are very afraid”
As the diplomatic row intensifies, rescue teams are working around the clock in the flooded area, where every rescue operation represents a huge logistical challenge.
Normally it takes four hours to drive from Dhaka to reach the flooded area, but rescuers and volunteers from across the country are trying to do so. Boats are hard to find, and many families are arriving to pick up their loved ones but have no way to reach them.
“I am helpless because I don’t have a boat,” said Yasin Arafat, 24, who came from Dhaka to try to join his father, mother, grandmother and younger brother.
He has heard that 35 families, including two pregnant women, are clinging to a roof in his village. But it takes three hours by boat to get there and he can’t find a rescue boat to take him there.
“They have no water, no food, and they are very afraid,” he said. “I haven’t heard from them for 48 hours.”
Even when people can get a boat, there are sections of the city on higher ground – including the railway – where boats have to be manually transported by dozens of volunteers.
The main road through Feni has now become its main waterway – and is used as a central route for locals to reach the mainland.
Some of those who have managed to escape the river are wading through waist- or chest-deep muddy water, risking water-borne diseases, encountering snakes or drowning as they try to reach safety.
For many others, walking through the deepest areas of the flood is impossible, leaving them stranded in villages miles from the city center. Even boating to these areas is risky: navigating through dense trees and marshes risks clogging the engine or hitting invisible underwater obstacles in the murky water.
Our boat passes a government building used as a relief center, where about 500 people are housed.
Other multi-story buildings, including a flooded hospital and several schools, are serving as temporary housing for people living in single-story shacks now under water. They are physically safe, but lack food, water and medicine.
Peyara Akther, 36, is trying to save her sister Tanzina and her sick newborn baby from the city’s rural outskirts. She said the one-month-old baby has not eaten for a few days and needs to see a doctor.
“I’m afraid the baby won’t make it,” Akther told CNN.
But after searching for an hour to reach the school where she believes her sister may be sheltering, there is no sign of them – the communications breakdown compounding the growing problems facing such rescue operations.
Akther returns home, hoping that her sister has found another way to get there.
We are heading further north with another boat to assist with the next rescue operation.
A Feni-born man who works as a security guard at a hospital in Qatar returned to Bangladesh when he heard what was happening in his hometown.
He managed to find a boat in the hope of rescuing his 55-year-old mother, but she was too far away to reach, so he decided to go to a shelter to pick up other members of his family.
The family of four – a mother, her child and her grandparents – clung to the boat, climbing in with the help of those on board. They were all exhausted and visibly hungry, eating snacks of nuts and dried fruit and gulping down water.
“We are happy now,” said grandfather Mizanur Rahman Khan, 65. “We are safe.”
As darkness fell on Friday evening, rescue efforts continued into the night to try to bring families in Feni to safety.
The main hope in the city is that those stranded survive long enough for help to arrive – or for the floodwaters to recede.
CNN’s Esha Mitra contributed reporting from New Delhi.
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