South Asian flood victims angry at lack of help
SEKHPUR, India (Reuters) - Hungry victims of South Asia's worst flooding in years complained on Tuesday that help was yet to reach them, while in some villages local politicians and officials were caught stealing from meager stocks of food.
At least 487 people have drowned, died from snakebites, hunger or water-borne diseases, or have been crushed to death or electrocuted, since devastating monsoon floods submerged swathes of the subcontinent downstream from the Himalayan mountains.
Police recovered 13 bodies of people who drowned in the overflowing Ganges river on Monday when their crowded boats capsized in two accidents. Another 50 were still missing.
Hundreds of thousands of people remained marooned or homeless in the worst-hit eastern Indian state of Bihar, more than 10 days after what officials say are the worst floods in memory.
Flood waters were receding across the state, water department officials said, making it easier for aid workers to reach stranded people.
But UNICEF warned on Tuesday that millions of people could fall victim to diarrhea, as well as malaria and dengue fever, if they do not get clean water and medical help within days.
The agency has also complained that the four helicopters deployed to transport aid were insufficient for the entire state.
Surrounded by flood waters, Rupesh Kumar, 23, laughed incredulously when asked if his family had received air-dropped aid.
"Air-drops? Forget those, we have not even seen a helicopter since flooding started 15 days ago, or a government boat," said Kumar, a farmer in the impoverished state.
The floods have affected around 30 million people in India and about 20 million in Bangladesh, where 164 people have died.
People have been left to fight over limited food supplies, while in the badly hit northeastern Indian state of Assam, villagers caught seven local politicians and officials stealing and hoarding food meant for the homeless, police said.
"WE ARE STARVING"
In Bihar, thousands of furious people are waiting in makeshift shelters along highways and embankments, from where they gaze across the waters at the roofs of their nearly submerged bamboo and thatch homes.
"We are starving and almost dying," said a weary Radhika Devi, who is in her 40s, as she squatted at the entrance of her flimsy shelter of bamboo poles and a tattered, yellow tarpaulin sheet that fluttered in the wind, threatening to fly off.
Devi, who has been living in her improvised home by the side of the highway with about 10 relatives, said her family had received 1 kg (2 lb) of crushed rice from authorities over the past 10 days.
"It didn't even last a day," she said.
Aid agencies added that food was not reaching places where it was needed most and there were far-flung villages which remained cut off for more than a week.
"Governments' response to the floods is often more of a knee-jerk reaction," said P.V. Unnikrishnan, ActionAid's emergencies adviser. "Relief is not in tune with the reality on the ground."
At a relief camp in Bangladesh, Geetiara Shafia Chowdhury, a government advisor, turned up with only 300 aid packets, leaving hundreds more people empty-handed.
"Don't lose your heart or patience. We will be with you and ensure all the needy get help," she said as she left, escorted by security officers.
Bangladesh health authorities were struggling to cope with thousands of diarrhea cases, and insufficient medicines, beds and staff in hospitals.
Health officials said 2,500 patients suffering from diarrhea were admitted to crammed hospitals in the past 24 hours, while local media reported more than 100,000 people were suffering from water-borne diseases.
Weather officials warned that more floods were expected in Dhaka, a city of 11 million.
(Additional reporting by Biswajyoti Das in Guwahati, Serajul Islam Quadir in Dhaka and Masud Karim in Balibadha)
