The sweeping cold wave coupled with blowing cooler wind continued affecting people’s normal life and agricultural activities in all eight districts of Rangpur division in the northern region.
The Met Office said the situation sharply deteriorated since Saturday with steep fall in the minimum temperatures causing unbearable sufferings to commoners.
Local sources said the sun remained covered behind cloud and fog till late making life miserable and forcing farm-labourers to abstain from their activities on croplands.
Senior Coordinator (Agriculture and Environment) of RDRS Bangladesh Mamunur Rashid told BSS that the weather behaves abnormally due to adverse impacts of climate change causes uncertainty to every sector, including agriculture.
“The farmers should irrigate their Boro rice seedbeds at nights and discharge the water in the mornings and keep seedbeds under cover of polythene sheets to save tender seedlings from cold injuries under present situation,” Rashid added.
The Met Office said the country’s lowest temperature of 7.2 degrees Celsius on Saturday was recorded at Dinajpur down from 9.4 degrees the previous day.
Civil Surgeon of Rangpur Dr Hirombo Kumar Roy said the number of pneumonia, fever, asthma and respiratory problem related patients continued to increase today keeping doctors busy at all health service facilities in the district.
Divisional Director (Health) Dr Mostafa Khaled Ahmed said stock of medicines in the government-run health facilities remains adequate and special steps have been taken to treat the cold-related patients at the district, upazila and union levels.
Additional Divisional Commissioner (General) Md. Zakir Hossain told the BSS that about four lakh pieces of blankets, received from the government, were distributed among cold-stricken people of all eight districts in Rangpur division.
“The district administrations will send letters to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief tomorrow seeking allocation of more warm clothes for distribution among cold-hit people in the division,” Hossain added.
Meanwhile, different NGOs, charitable and voluntary organisations have also intensified distribution of warm clothes among the cold-hit people all over Rangpur region.