Water, water everywhere but not a drop to drink
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
MANY of the millions of people forced from their homes by floods across South Asia were desperate for food and drinking water yesterday as relief operations continued.
The flooding, described as the heaviest in 30 years, has affected more than 25 million people and killed at least 1,450 others in Bangladesh, India and Nepal since monsoon rains began pouring down in June.
The disaster has hit India's Bihar state the worst, where some of the growing number of people marooned by swirling, muddy water fought for emergency food supplies.
"The total number of people now affected are 11.5 million," said Manoj Srivastava, the state's disaster management chief, adding that more than 6,000 villages were flooded with at least two million people living outdoors. One teenager in the state drowned on Sunday in a fight for a packet of relief supplies, police said.
The skies cleared yesterday, but a UN official warned that rivers upstream in neighbouring Nepal were still overflowing, making it unlikely the flood water would recede in Bihar soon. "If there is more water from Nepal then the situation will only get worse," Job Zachariah, the head of the Bihar chapter of the child welfare agency Unicef, said.
AFP
The flooding, described as the heaviest in 30 years, has affected more than 25 million people and killed at least 1,450 others in Bangladesh, India and Nepal since monsoon rains began pouring down in June.
The disaster has hit India's Bihar state the worst, where some of the growing number of people marooned by swirling, muddy water fought for emergency food supplies.
"The total number of people now affected are 11.5 million," said Manoj Srivastava, the state's disaster management chief, adding that more than 6,000 villages were flooded with at least two million people living outdoors. One teenager in the state drowned on Sunday in a fight for a packet of relief supplies, police said.
The skies cleared yesterday, but a UN official warned that rivers upstream in neighbouring Nepal were still overflowing, making it unlikely the flood water would recede in Bihar soon. "If there is more water from Nepal then the situation will only get worse," Job Zachariah, the head of the Bihar chapter of the child welfare agency Unicef, said.
AFP
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