Disease fears rise as South Asian floods kill 320
By Biswajyoti Das
GUWAHATI, India, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Fears grew on Sunday that epidemics would strike the millions marooned or forced from their homes by South Asia's catastrophic floods as the death toll climbed to 320 and criticism of relief efforts spread.
In the eastern Indian state of Assam, where up to 3 million people took refuge in emergency camps or were cut off in their villages, receding waters and soaring temperatures fed concerns of malaria and encephalitis outbreaks.
"We are really worried about the outbreak of an epidemic in Assam now," Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told Reuters.
"The damaged caused by floods this year has incurred a huge loss to properties and human beings."
Every year monsoon rains leave a trail of destruction across South Asia, but much of the economy of the largely agricultural region depends on the downpours.
The last fortnight has seen some of the worst floods in living memory affecting about 35 million people in the region, 10 million of them made homeless or left stranded. Valuable crops have been destroyed as rivers burst their banks.
Much of eastern India and two-thirds of Bangladesh's 64 districts are inundated.
Indian government figures cited by the United Nations Children's Fund say more than 1,100 people have died in this year's monsoon, not including all the latest casualties.
Health workers already struggling to cope with large numbers of fever and dysentery cases fear that, as many people return to rebuild their homes, stagnant water and mud will provide ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Federal ministers would visit Assam on Tuesday, Gogoi said, to gauge the situation after complaints that local officials had moved too slowly to assess the damage and appeal for relief.
"While we never expect a perfect government, the Chief Minister should have at least taken the trouble to visit the flood-affected areas," Sanjiv Nath, a teacher, said by phone.
In impoverished Bihar state, four air force helicopters dropped food, medicines and clothing to some of the 10 million affected in the state, where floods have worsened.
"Each pilot is carrying out 12 sorties a day and they have reported huge devastation in central and north Bihar," said Ramesh Kumar Das, a Defence Ministry spokesman in Kolkata.
"I have been dividing one small piece of bread among four of my children, and I have been starving and somehow surviving," a sobbing Siraj Ahmed told a local television reporter in Bihar.
In neighbouring Orissa and Uttar Pradesh 39 people have died since Saturday, drowned, killed as their houses collapsed or struck by lightning.
BANGLADESH BLEAK
In Bangladesh, 120 people are now confirmed dead, with 39 more drowning or dying from fatal snakebites, said a senior official at the government's flood monitoring cell.
At least 37 others were missing.
More than 20 million people in more than 40 of the country's 64 district were affected, while up to 300,000 had moved into relief camps or were living on raised highways and river embankments.
Floods have also inundated part of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, forcing many to take shelter with relatives and friends.
Meanwhile, shortages of food, safe drinking water and medicines have triggered outbreaks of diarrhoea, dysentery and other waterborne diseases in the flood shelters.
Weather officials said the floods were receding in the north but the situation could worsen in central districts and in Dhaka.
The country's army-backed government has promised an all-out effort to save flood victims but relief efforts were inadequate, officials said.
Political parties have refused to participate, demanding the government end a ban on their activity.
In Nepal, a U.N. body said weeks of rains had triggered floods and landslides that had killed 84 people. (Additional reporting by Bappa Majumdar in KOLKATA, Sharat Pradhan in LUCKNOW, Reuters reporters in PATNA and BHUBANESWAR and Serajul Islam Quadir in DHAKA)
GUWAHATI, India, Aug 5 (Reuters) - Fears grew on Sunday that epidemics would strike the millions marooned or forced from their homes by South Asia's catastrophic floods as the death toll climbed to 320 and criticism of relief efforts spread.
In the eastern Indian state of Assam, where up to 3 million people took refuge in emergency camps or were cut off in their villages, receding waters and soaring temperatures fed concerns of malaria and encephalitis outbreaks.
"We are really worried about the outbreak of an epidemic in Assam now," Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi told Reuters.
"The damaged caused by floods this year has incurred a huge loss to properties and human beings."
Every year monsoon rains leave a trail of destruction across South Asia, but much of the economy of the largely agricultural region depends on the downpours.
The last fortnight has seen some of the worst floods in living memory affecting about 35 million people in the region, 10 million of them made homeless or left stranded. Valuable crops have been destroyed as rivers burst their banks.
Much of eastern India and two-thirds of Bangladesh's 64 districts are inundated.
Indian government figures cited by the United Nations Children's Fund say more than 1,100 people have died in this year's monsoon, not including all the latest casualties.
Health workers already struggling to cope with large numbers of fever and dysentery cases fear that, as many people return to rebuild their homes, stagnant water and mud will provide ideal breeding grounds for mosquitoes.
Federal ministers would visit Assam on Tuesday, Gogoi said, to gauge the situation after complaints that local officials had moved too slowly to assess the damage and appeal for relief.
"While we never expect a perfect government, the Chief Minister should have at least taken the trouble to visit the flood-affected areas," Sanjiv Nath, a teacher, said by phone.
In impoverished Bihar state, four air force helicopters dropped food, medicines and clothing to some of the 10 million affected in the state, where floods have worsened.
"Each pilot is carrying out 12 sorties a day and they have reported huge devastation in central and north Bihar," said Ramesh Kumar Das, a Defence Ministry spokesman in Kolkata.
"I have been dividing one small piece of bread among four of my children, and I have been starving and somehow surviving," a sobbing Siraj Ahmed told a local television reporter in Bihar.
In neighbouring Orissa and Uttar Pradesh 39 people have died since Saturday, drowned, killed as their houses collapsed or struck by lightning.
BANGLADESH BLEAK
In Bangladesh, 120 people are now confirmed dead, with 39 more drowning or dying from fatal snakebites, said a senior official at the government's flood monitoring cell.
At least 37 others were missing.
More than 20 million people in more than 40 of the country's 64 district were affected, while up to 300,000 had moved into relief camps or were living on raised highways and river embankments.
Floods have also inundated part of Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka, forcing many to take shelter with relatives and friends.
Meanwhile, shortages of food, safe drinking water and medicines have triggered outbreaks of diarrhoea, dysentery and other waterborne diseases in the flood shelters.
Weather officials said the floods were receding in the north but the situation could worsen in central districts and in Dhaka.
The country's army-backed government has promised an all-out effort to save flood victims but relief efforts were inadequate, officials said.
Political parties have refused to participate, demanding the government end a ban on their activity.
In Nepal, a U.N. body said weeks of rains had triggered floods and landslides that had killed 84 people. (Additional reporting by Bappa Majumdar in KOLKATA, Sharat Pradhan in LUCKNOW, Reuters reporters in PATNA and BHUBANESWAR and Serajul Islam Quadir in DHAKA)
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