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Bangladesh

Bangladesh bracing for widespread floods

DHAKA, July 21 (Reuters) - Meteorologists warned on Wednesday that Bangladesh faced the prospect of devastating flooding this month from persistent monsoon rains.

Large areas of southeastern Comilla district are already flooded after the Gomti river broke through an embankment 10 days ago that had been protecting half a million people.

The deluge is continuing and may increase over the next few days when weather officials expect heavy rains to sweep the country's north, northeastern and southeastern regions.

"Water levels in all major rivers are rising with incessant rain falling across the country," said Akhtar Hossain, executive engineer at the flood forecasting centre.

"It seems we are going to have another major flooding this month," he told Reuters.

Army chief Lieutenant-General Mustafizur Rahman visited the breached embankment at Ebderpur, 115 km (70 miles) southeast of the capital Dhaka, on Wednesday and asked army engineers to do whatever possible to plug the gaps.

"Water is still pouring through the broken sections of the 174-km (108-mile) embankment and it looks impossible to seal the holes unless the water level in the Gomti dropped sharply," said one official in Comilla, 15 km (10 miles) from Ebderpur.

Officials said over 70,000 flood victims had been shifted to shelters in Comilla district while many more were still stranded in their half-submerged homes.

Relief and medical operations have been intensified, they said without giving details.

The floods have damaged more than 1,700 km (1,065 miles) of roads and rice paddies in 120,000 acres (48,000 hectares) in Comilla, according to official estimates.

Soldiers and workers on Wednesday sandbagged sections of the highway between Dhaka and Chittagong port to keep the key link open to traffic.