DHAKA, 21 July 2004 — Torrential rains that have deluged more than one quarter of Bangladesh, forced the shutdown of airports and crippled road and rail networks yesterday in the northern part of the country, as the flood death toll crossed 100, officials said.

Swollen rivers and monsoon rains flooded the runway of a regional airport in the worst affected province, northeastern Sylhet, and forced the closure of schools and businesses.

Boats were navigating the runway of the Sylhet airport, with all domestic and international flights suspended, according to a civil aviation official who refused to be named. The flooded airport was closed to all air traffic as of late Monday.

Other domestic airports in northern Saidpur and Lalmonirhat districts were also shut down with road and rail links to the capital Dhaka and the southern port cities cut.

An estimated four million people in rain swept villages and towns were displaced from their homes and a million more trapped in thousands of muddy hamlets surrounded by water for more than a week.

Eight more people were reportedly killed in flood related incidents in northern and central districts yesterday, pushing the death toll to 101 in the worst deluge to hit the country in 16 years. The national Flood Warning and Monitoring Center said the rain-driven floods could assume cataclysmic dimensions if the water levels in the three major rivers of Brahmaputra, Ganges and Meghna continued to swell at the same time.

Army helicopters were pressed into service for distributing emergency relief goods such as biscuits and water purifying tablets to distressed people in villages made inaccessible by the gushing waters which had flooded roads.

Monsoon rains have swept the capital Dhaka, forcing thousands of people to live on the roofs of buildings in submerged residential neighborhoods.

Rescue workers said more than 10,000 residents fled their homes, as the swirling waters of the Turag and Sitalakhya rivers encircling Dhaka deluged the low lying suburbs of the city.

Flood waters cascading down the rivers from upstream in India inundated tens of thousands of hectares of croplands and thousands of kilometers of roads in over 36 out of 64 administrative districts which cover more than one-fourth of the country’s flat alluvial plains.

India and Bangladesh share over 50 rivers, including the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, many of them flowing over the danger mark for the past one week.