UN warns of impending epidemic unless aid reaches South Asian flood
victims
INDIA: International aid groups warned of an impending health crisis
if help does not reach millions of people in South Asia stranded by
heavy flooding amid forecasts of more rain in the devastated region.
More than two weeks of monsoon rains across much of northern India,
Bangladesh and Nepal have flooded rivers, inundated plains and killed at
least 376 people and stranded some 19 million more.
During a brief respite in the rain, aid workers, government officials
and the military scrambled Tuesday to provide food, clean drinking water
and medicines in a bid to ward of an epidemic of waterborne diseases.
But the scale of the disaster has dwarfed relief efforts.
“Entire villages are days away from a health crisis if people are not
reached in the coming days,” Marzio Babille, UNICEF’s health chief in
India, said Tuesday.
“Many of the affected areas are home to poor communities who suffer
from poor sanitation and hygiene year round,” Babille said in a
statement. Stagnant waters left by the floods are a lethal breeding
ground for diarrhea and waterborne diseases at an epidemic level, he
said.
Babille said people are also at risk from skin infections, malaria,
leptospirosis and dengue fever. Children, who make up 40 percent of
South Asia’s population, are particularly susceptible.
In India, officials said the problem was exasperated by contaminated
wells.
As the floodwaters receded, special medical camps were distributing
chlorine tablets for purifying drinking water.
More than 1,000 people in the state were reported to be sick, mainly
from cholera and gastroenteritis, officials said.
In Bangladesh, there were 1,400 reported cases of diarrhea in the
past 24 hours, said Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the Word Health
Organization. The World Food Program and UNICEF have been distributing
emergency food supplies to thousands of people in Bangladesh and Nepal,
said WFP spokesman Simon Pluess in Geneva. India has not requested any
aid, he said.
Since the start of the monsoon in June, the government says more than
1,200 people have died in India alone, with scores of others killed in
Bangladesh and neighboring Nepal, where floods have hit low-lying
southern parts of the country.
On Tuesday, eight more people died in the latest flooding in
Bangladesh, bringing its toll to 164, the Information Ministry said.
The respite in rains appeared to be temporary.
Omar Baddour of the World Meteorological Organization said the
forecast for the region for the next 48 hours was for more rain.
Lucknow, Wednesday, AP
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