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| Monday, 26 July 2004 |
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Disease threatens south Asia's flood-hit areas DHAKA, Sunday (Reuters, PTI, UNI) Millions of people made homeless in South Asia's worst floods in one-and-a half decades were threatened by disease as rising waters cut off access to food and drinking water. And in impoverished Bangladesh, where monsoon floods have forced about seven million people to live in temporary shelters, the forecast was for more rain. The Bangladesh capital remained in the grip of floods with rivers around the city continuing to rise as the toll in the natural calamity crossed 200 in the country. Many low-lying areas of Dhaka were inundated affecting thousands of people, officials said. Even diplomatic areas of Gulshan and Baridhara were flooded. The flood situation in four North Bihar districts remained grim, while the situation improved in other parts of the state due to receding water levels even as the death toll rose to 213. However, the major rivers continued to flow above danger level and the army and the IAF carried on rescue and relief operations for the third week today. More than two million people in Kishanganj, Khagaria, Purnia and Kishanganj districts continued to reel under the floods as swollen Bagmati, Noon, Kareh, Burhi Gandak and Mahananda rivers inundated most parts of the districts, rendering people homeless. The death toll in the current wave of floods rose to 213 with the detection of five more bodies in Samastipur district during the last 24 hours. In India, the death toll from floods in the eastern state of Bihar, adjoining Bangladesh, reached 205 as soldiers continued to distribute food packets to millions of affected people. \Ram Vichar Rai, the state's minister for relief, told Reuters that nearly 20 million people had been affected by the worst floods in 16 years. |
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