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Monsoon disease fears rise
05/08/2007 16:13 - (SA)
Patna - 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 at least 330, and criticism of relief efforts
spread.
The last two weeks have seen some of the worst flooding in
living memory affecting about 35 million people in the region -
10 million of them made homeless or left stranded.
In India's poor Bihar state, four air force helicopters
dropped food, medicines and clothing to some of the 10 million
affected, where floods have worsened as more rivers burst banks.
"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 spokesperson in Kolkata.
Marzio Babille, UNICEF's health chief in India who is
co-ordinating UN work in Bihar, said aid agencies and
authorities had to do more to prevent outbreaks of measles,
gastroenteritis, dengue fever and other diseases, or "we will
see many deaths". "The scale is massive, the challenge is enormous for the
government and those who are helping," he said.
Hundreds of thousands are camped out on elevated highways,
railway tracks and field embankments as deep floodwaters swirl
around them.
UNICEF is mobilising doctors by land and boat and is
immunising children against measles.
Those who were reached on Sunday showed their desperation.
"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 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 disease outbreaks as villagers returned to their homes.
"We are really worried about the outbreak of an epidemic in
Assam now," Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said, but locals said the
state government was not doing enough.
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, and officials are facing
the same health worries as their counterparts in India.
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 embankments.
Weather officials said the floods were receding in the north,
but the situation could worsen in central districts and in the
capital, 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 UN body said weeks of rains had triggered
floods and landslides that had killed 84 people.
- Reuters
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