More cash needed for Sudan flood appeal: U.N.

KHARTOUM (Reuters) - Only $1 million out of a $20 million appeal has come in to help growing numbers of victims of Sudan's worst floods in living memory, the United Nations said on Monday.

Throughout Sudan heavy rains sparked flash floods and rivers burst their banks, sweeping away tens of thousands of homes, many of which are built beside rivers, the only source of water.

U.N. agencies are providing clean water to 2.2 million people in northern Sudan alone, with 500,000 now directly affected by the floods, the U.N. statement said.

At least 131 people have been killed and water-borne diseases such as cholera, which if untreated can kill within 24 hours, have spread.

But the U.N. statement said just a small fraction of the money needed to help victims of the flooding has been received.

"Only $1 million has since been received from donors, leaving a considerable funding gap of nearly US$19 million," it said, adding central U.N. funds had earlier provided $13.5 million to the flood aid effort.

The United Nations says most of the new damage is located in the state of South Kordofan, in central Sudan, east of South Darfur.

"In the state, at least 15,000 homes were destroyed or damaged, affecting at least 75,000 people, of whom it is estimated some 30,000 are now homeless," it added.

It said 20 people had been killed in the state and 13,000 livestock lost.

The Health Ministry in Gedaref, a state in eastern Sudan near the Eritrean border, said in a report obtained by Reuters that 70 percent of water samples had tested positive for cholera, but the government has officially declined to call the outbreak of acute watery diarrhea, cholera.

The World Health Organisation had also confirmed it as cholera.

The U.N. statement said since mid-April at least 68 people had died in the outbreak with 1,323 suspected cases.

But it said the preventive provision of clean water had contained this year's outbreak. Last year some 25,000 cases of cholera were reported throughout the country, 9,000 in northern Sudan.