As the muddy brown flood waters began to recede in the northeastern Indian state of Assam on Tuesday, government officials warned of the threat of water-borne diseases in ill-equipped relief camps.
There are no clear numbers of the victims of nearly three weeks of flooding in the north-eastern states. Conservative estimates put the death toll in Bihar and Assam alone at 650. Estimates of the number of homeless and displaced reach into the millions.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conducted an aerial survey on Tuesday of remote Bihar state, where officials hoped he would announce a substantial relief package.
In Bihar’s Samastipur village, residents rely on boats and swimming to get from place to place, and balance themselves on unstable rooftops to wait for food to be airdropped by the Indian air force.
A week ago Singh flew over Assam and earmarked 1,01-billion rupees (about R22-million) for relief measures. He also announced the launch of a federal task force that has six months to find a permanent solution to the north-east’s recurring floods.
Last July Assam suffered one of its worst floods in 50 years and a proposal was sent to the federal government to declare the floods a national problem.
Bloated animal carcasses buzzing with flies float along what were once roads in Assam. The state’s health minister, Bhumidhar Barman, said at least 500 000 children could starve unless emergency supplies are rushed in.
Many children, some who live in the 1 800 relief camps or simply in the open air, are already suffering from gastroenteritis, diarrhoea, dysentry and hepatitis.
Barman warned of a massive cholera outbreak because drinking water sources have been polluted by flood water, even though the federal government and Unicef have provided 400 000 water-purifying tablets in the past two weeks.
In Assam the army has deployed more than 30 contingents and 75 motorboats, and the air force has 10 helicopters engaged in relief operations, the UNI news agency reported.
In the state’s Kaziranga National Park, efforts were being made to rescue stranded and traumatised animals, said a statement from the Wildlife Trust of India, a leading conservation organisation.
The worst flooding in the park in 20 years has completely submerged a 430 square kilometre area, forcing animals into the highlands where they are vulnerable to poachers and highway traffic.
Kaziranga is home to the famous and endangered one-horned rhino.
Rescued animals include a three-day-old leopard, which is being fed milk through a bottle, and a two-month-old rhino baby.
India’s floods are a known enemy — they return every year with disturbing accuracy, killing hundreds, displacing millions and forcing entire populations to live like refugees during the monsoon months.
But the country has no clear national policy on flood control.
Critics have pointed to the irony of the fact that officials were meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday to discuss the looming drought that hangs over many western states.
No relief in sight in submerged Bangladesh
Meanwhile, reports Helen Rowe, flood waters that have submerged two-thirds of Bangladesh leaving 30-million people cut off or homeless will not recede for at least a week, experts warned on Tuesday as the death toll rose above 300.
Vast swathes of land across the country remained under water on Tuesday with only trees and rooftops visible in some places, officials said, predicting that the situation would get worse before it improves.
While flood water was starting to recede slowly in northern districts, the situation in the centre of the country including the capital, Dhaka, was likely to deteriorate, the official BSS agency quoted a government official as saying.
Nearly half of the capital has been inundated, turning some streets into rivers and forcing 250 000 of the city’s most vulnerable inhabitants out of their slum homes.
The flooding claimed 44 lives on Monday, BSS added, pushing the total number killed since the floods began on July 10 to 329.
A high tide in the Bay of Bengal will prevent water dispersing because the sea level is expected to remain slightly higher until the full moon on August 2, experts said.
In the meantime, water dispersing from northern areas will continue to gush downstream resulting in worsening flooding in central Bangladesh.
Flood Warning Centre officials said the situation will be exacerbated by further monsoon rains expected from Wednesday.
In Dhaka, thousands of slum dwellers have been the worst hit by the flooding. About 252 000 have taken shelter in 206 makeshift centres set up by Dhaka City Corporation, BSS said.
Others have clung to their shanty homes sleeping on bamboo platforms as the sewage-polluted waters rise around them. Many others are sleeping on pavements under plastic sheeting.
Meanwhile, the Bangladeshi government discussed the joint distribution of aid with NGO representatives in Dhaka on Monday, although it said it has sufficient relief materials to meet current demand, BSS said.
The World Food Programme has warned that Bangladesh ”could face a major humanitarian crisis” in coming days and is preparing to distribute 3 000 tons of rice to people in northern and central Bangladesh.
Britain has announced it is to provide $18-million for relief supplies to be delivered via the World Food Programme and the United Nations Development Fund, BSS added.
The United States has also said it will donate $50 000 in emergency assistance.
Floods across south Asia, including parts of northeastern India and Nepal, have claimed hundreds of lives over the past 18 days.
The flooding is the heaviest seen in Bangladesh since the worst-to-date floods of 1998 when more than 700 people died and 21-million were left homeless.
Low-lying Bangladesh sees at least 20% of the country flooded each year during the rainy season.
The country is criss-crossed by a network of 230 rivers including major arteries that carry melting ice from the Himalayas before emptying into the Bay of Bengal.
Experts say the human cost of flooding in Bangladesh has risen over past decades as pressure on land from a growing population has forced hundreds of thousands of people to live in areas vulnerable to flooding. — Sapa-DPA, Sapa-AFP