Authorities have pumped floodwater out of a substation and restored power to parts of Sylhet city but Sunamganj district has remained without electricity.
Authorities switched off the connections at Kumargaon substation at noon on Saturday to avoid any accident after floodwater entered the facility. The substation resumed operation around 6 pm, said Abdul Quader, chief engineer of Bangladesh Power Development Board in Sylhet division.
“We pumped the water out and restored connection to some parts of the city,” he said.
Water entered the switchboard of the 132/33kv substation on Thursday. The authorities suspended the operation after the control room was affected by the floods, reports bdnews24.com.
Many parts of Sylhet and Sunamganj have been without power since Thursday evening due to the flooding. Floods and power outages have also disrupted mobile networks. Road and rail links to Sylhet have also been hampered while Sunamganj has been completely cut off from the rest of the country.
Around 3.5 million people in the two districts have been stranded in the third round of floods this season due to heavy rains and runoff from upstream in India’s Meghalaya and Assam. Weather experts fear more rains will increase the suffering of the flood-affected people.
The local administration said a lack of boats hampered the rescue operation as residents were suffering due to a shortage of food and drinking water. The government has deployed troops to help the civil administration.