Flood victims stuck in camps

2008-09-08 11:35

Patna - Hundreds of thousands of Indian flood refugees are likely to spend six months in state-run relief camps while authorities rebuild homes, roads and river embankments in the flood-ravaged north, officials said on Monday.

More than 257 000 people have taken shelter in 313 state-run camps in Bihar state, where the Kisi River burst its banks last month and turned hundreds of square kilometres of land into a giant lake, said Prate Amrita, a state disaster management official.

The state's top elected official, Nits Kumar, said the relief camps would run for another six months as most areas will likely remain flooded for at least that long.

Authorities have confirmed 42 deaths, but it is widely believed the final toll will be much higher.

Rescue workers have evacuated 914  000 people from nearly 1  000 flooded villages. But with river levels falling by more than 0.6m over the last few days, more than 30  000 have returned to their homes - ignoring official warning that their homes were still not safe, Amrita said.

Another 50 000 people have refused to abandon their homes in flood-hit areas despite pleas by authorities to evacuate, he said.

On Sunday, newspaper advertisements urged thousands of flood survivors to go to state-run camps where clean drinking water, food and medical care were available.

Government engineers were digging a new channel to correct the course of the Kosi River - which flows from neighbouring Nepal - and plug the 1.6km-long breach in the embankment. They also have taken up the task of repairing roads to allow faster movement of relief supplies in the region, said KR Sinha, a state government engineer, on Monday.

The damage to nearly 2 000km of highways and 250 road bridges was estimated around 22 billion rupees.

With relief camps teeming with the flood victims, the government has rushed about 900 doctors and medical supplies to the inundated region.

Already, hundreds of cases of pneumonia, diarrhoea and high fevers have been reported. Doctors started immunisation drives over the weekend to counter fears that waterborne diseases will spread as the number of camp residents grow.

In neighbouring Bangladesh, the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said in a bulletin on Sunday that most major rivers were flowing above the danger mark and floodwaters were only likely to start receding by the end of next week.

The government gave no details about the number of people killed in Bangladesh, but news reports have said at least 19 people have died over the last two weeks.

The monsoon season, which runs from June to September every year, brings rain vital for the farmers of South Asia but also can cause massive destruction.

- AP