Monsoon
deaths top 1,000 with worse to come
(Filed: 27/07/2004)
Deaths in South Asia's worst monsoon floods for almost a decade rose above 1,000 yesterday, with weather forecasters predicting further heavy rain in the coming days.
Two thirds of Bangladesh, including large sections of the capital, Dhaka, is now under water with as many as 20 million people forced from their homes.
Despite calls by aid agencies to deploy helicopters to distribute aid, the Bangladesh government said it did not require international help.
Chowdhury Kamal ibn Yusuf, the minister for food and disaster management, said it was not necessary to declare a state of emergency. "We have enough food stocks to conduct relief operation in the flood-affected areas," he said.
Floods have also severely affected the north-east Indian states of Bihar and Assam where 16 people drowned when the boat they were in capsized on Sunday. Although monsoon flooding is an annual event in India and Bangladesh, widespread corruption means relief supplies often fail to get through to the needy.
Criticism of the Indian government's shortcomings was exacerbated when Laloo Prasad Yadav, the railways minister, suggested - a la Marie Antoinette - that affected millions in Bihar should "eat more fish".
In Dhaka, officials conceded that the sewage system had now "failed" as local doctors reported that cases of dysentery, typhoid and cholera were on the increase. Drownings, snakebites, boating accidents and house collapses are listed among the official causes of 258 deaths. When the waters recede, the number of dead is expected to increase sharply. The British High Commission had pledged £10 million for flood victims.
On average, a fifth of Bangladesh is flooded annually but with heavy rainfall forecast the current situation is causing growing concern.
Authorities recovered at least 140 decomposed bodies as flood waters receded in eastern India, raising the country's death toll from the monsoon to 686.
SOURCE: Telegraph.co.uk