The country’s Flood Forecasting and Warning Center (FFWC) reported that the situation may worsen further as major rivers in the central districts around Dhaka are set to rise in the next couple of days.

After starting in late June, the flooding left more than 1 million people marooned at their homes and at least 41 people, including 31 children, dead, Disaster Management Ministry spokeswoman Tasmin Ara Azmiri told DPA. Drowning caused most of the deaths, she added.

Referring to the Global Flood Awareness System, the humanitarian information website ReliefWeb has warned the current floods may be the most prolonged since 1988 flooding that submerged two-thirds of Bangladesh for more than two months, causing extensive damage.

This time, 31 out of 64 administrative districts have been submerged by floodwaters, prompting many people to move to shelters, according to the disaster management department.

The flooding has caused widespread damage to flood protection embankments, crops, poultry, livestock and fisheries, according to the website.

It may further exacerbate the humanitarian situation amid the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, which has left 3,000 people dead, it added.

Emergency supplies of food and cash support have been dispatched, Azmiri said.

The FFWC predicted the waters are likely to start receding next week. South Asia experiences flooding almost every year during the monsoon season, which runs from June through September.

The landslide occurred on Tuesday when 1.5 million cubic meters of earth fell into a tributary of the Yangtze River near the city of Enshi in Hubei province, the Xinhua news agency said, citing local flood control authorities.

China’s state weather bureau said on Wednesday that the country was hit by fresh rounds of torrential rain this week, further raising flood risks throughout the country, Reuters reported.

Red alerts have been declared in the provinces of Anhui and Jiangxi, which are bisected by the Yangtze. China’s water resources ministry also warned on Tuesday that water levels in the Yangtze and adjoining lakes would continue to rise.

Ministry officials said they needed to keep a close eye on water levels at the Three Gorges Dam, which has been storing huge volumes of water in order to ease downstream flood risks and is now 16 meters higher than its official warning level.

China’s giant dams, designed to contain floods and generate electricity, have come under heavy scrutiny in recent weeks. While officials have talked up their role in reducing flood peaks, critics say they not only fail to protect against extreme weather but also end up cutting flood storage capacity.

Dams block the flow of sediment and reduce the ability of downstream flood plains and wetlands to absorb flood waters, said Darrin Magee, a professor at the Hobart and William Smith Colleges who specializes in China’s water issues.

The need to generate power can also undermine flood control efforts, he added.

“Flood control requires retaining water, and power production requires letting it out,” he said.

Nine people were killed and more than 30 were missing in Myagdi district, 200 km (125 miles) northwest of the capital Katmandu, where several houses were destroyed on Friday, district administrator Gyan Nath Dhakal said, Reuters reported.

“The toll is expected to increase as rescuers had just reached the remote site to look for victims,” Dhakal said, adding that 50 people had been plucked to safety using helicopters.

In neighboring Kaski district, seven people were killed, said a second government official in the tourist town of Pokhara.

Another seven were killed in the Jajarkot district in the far west.

“We are searching for eight people who are still missing,” said Kishore Shrestha, a senior police official.

In the southern plains bordering India, the Koshi River, which causes deadly floods in the eastern Indian state of Bihar almost every year, was flowing above the danger level, police said.

Landslides and flash floods are common occurrences in mountainous Nepal during the June-September monsoon every year.

In a statement on Monday, Foreign Ministry Spokesman Seyed Abbas Mousavi offered sympathy to the Japanese government, people and families of victims of flooding and landslide that have killed tens of people and caused heavy damages.

The death toll from floods and landslides unleashed by torrential rains on Japan’s southern island of Kyushu has risen to 20, with 14 people missing, according to public broadcaster NHK.

More heavy rain was forecast after Saturday’s deadly deluge in the Kumamoto prefecture, in what has become Japan’s worst natural disaster since Typhoon Hagibis in October last year left about 90 people dead.

Deep floodwaters and the risk of more mudslides hampered search and rescue operations throughout Sunday, including at a care home where more than a dozen people have died and scores were still stranded.

Helicopters and boats have been used as more than 40,000 defense troops, the coast guard and fire brigades continue efforts to rescue people from their homes.