Relief and Disaster Management Minister Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf said the half-million toll over the past four decades showed Bangladesh needed to study ways to limit the damage of disasters.

"Bangladesh should take disaster preparedness programmes immediately to cope with the natural calamities as floods, cyclones ... are regular phenomena of this calamity-prone country," he told a function.

Some of the worst disasters befell Bangladesh in 1970 and 1991 when cyclones ripped across the country and killed thousands.

In 1988 three months of sustained floods left several hundred people dead and caused millions of dollars of damage, prompting a French-sponsored global call to help Bangladesh develop a long-term flood protection system.

But a decade later in 1998, Bangladesh was ravaged by flooding said to be the worst in a century, leaving millions homeless and causing huge damage to crops and infrastructure.

This year at least 83 people have died in flash and monsoon floods, the state BSS news agency said Tuesday, quoting official sources. This was 10 more deaths than the last official estimate provided Thursday.

The flood situation continued to improve Tuesday in central and northern Bangladesh as an easing of monsoon rains lessened pressure on swelling rivers, officials said.

Bangladesh is criss-crossed by more than 230 rivers, which flood and ravage the country almost every year.

TERRA.WIRE