Dozens die as floods force millions from homes in South Asia

INDIA: Dozens of people were killed on Wednesday across South Asia as surging flood waters caused by heavy monsoon rains forced millions from their homes.

Twenty-eight people drowned and 12 others were missing when a boat carrying rescue workers and evacuees in sodden northern India split apart, the Press Trust of India reported, bringing the nationwide death toll from the deluge to nearly 1,000, according to officials and local reports.

In eastern India, villagers clutching meagre belongings fled their dwellings as soldiers helped in rescue efforts. Some perched on rooftops while others scrambled up trees to get out of the way of rushing flood waters.

“The overall situation has turned critical with major breaches of embankments inundating dozens of villages,” said Bhumidhar Barman, relief minister for India’s hard-hit northeastern state of Assam where nearly all 27 districts were affected.

Millions of people have been forced to flee since the annual monsoon began in June in South Asia. These include five million in Assam state, where the Brahmaputra River, one of the subcontinent’s longest, burst its banks.

“We’ve been trying our best to get essentials — baby food, medicines, besides tarpaulin and polythene sheets — to the people,” Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said, adding that over 3,500 shelters had been opened.

Another 62 people lost their lives in eastern Bihar state after relentless rain.

Next door in low-lying Bangladesh, criss-crossed by a network of 230 rivers, at least 38 people have died in the past few days and 4.5 million were displaced as flood waters rose in the north and centre, officials said.

“The government has mobilised all essential services,” said disaster management minister Tapan Chowdhury.

People jammed relief centres and fled to higher ground as rivers burst their banks, inundating more than half of the country’s 64 districts.

“The flood situation worsened overnight as all the major rivers continued to swell,” said disaster management spokesman Shafiqul Islam, adding 22 people died overnight.

Last month, landslides triggered by heavy rains killed at least 126 Bangladeshis in southeastern Chittagong city. In July and August 2004, floods killed more than 700 people.

In the Himalayan nation of Nepal, eighty-two people have been killed by monsoon-triggered floods and landslides since mid-June, and 200,000 displaced.

Hardest-hit was along Nepal’s southern border with India, where the army was flying helicopter relief missions to stranded locals and doctors were on watch for water-borne diseases spread by flooding.

New Delhi, Thursday, AFP