Khulna

Just down the street, 24-year-old vegetable seller Ajmal Pial from Khulna, Bangladesh, took in the breeze with the city’s skyscrapers stretched out behind him across the waters of the Persian Gulf.

His friend, 32-year-old Shobuz Sardar, also from Khulna, Bangladesh, said part of that excitement came from the fact that it’s only the second time that an Asian country hosts the World Cup, 20 years after Japan and South Korea co-hosted the tournament.

In Bangladesh's coastal districts — including Khulna, Satkhira, and Bagerhat — much of the surface water has gotten so salty that it can no longer be used for drinking or for other domestic purposes.

“I have never seen a tidal surge rising to this level. It flooded many villages and washed away houses. Many people are marooned,” Humayum Kabir, an official in the coastal district of Khulna, said.

In Bangladesh, there are reports of tens of thousands of homes damaged or destroyed and many villages submerged by storm surges in low-lying coastal areas like Khulna and Satkhira.