Northern India, Nepal and Bangladesh suffer their worst flooding in a century, but relief efforts continue to be inadequate

According to the United Nations, millions of people in the Indian states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Assam and neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh, are suffering the "worst flooding in living memory". More than 300 lives have been claimed by a fortnight of unprecedented torrential rains in South Asia, and diseases like malaria, encephalitis and gastroenteritis now pose another threat.

"Some 20 million people are believed to be affected in all three countries, in what is being described as the worst flooding in living memory," said Unicef in an official release on August 5. Others put the figure at 35 million.

"Unknown numbers of people are either stranded or have been displaced and lack any form of shelter. Hundreds of thousands have lost their homes, possessions, livestock and fields and will have to begin their lives from scratch when the floodwaters recede," said the aid agency. "Access to the worst affected areas is a major concern as vast swathes of land are completely submerged and rising waters continue cutting off more villages and communities."

Floodwaters did however start receding in some parts of Uttar Pradesh on Sunday, where overflowing rivers have claimed 125 lives so far and left 2 million people homeless. In Bihar, around 10.8 million people from the state's 82 million people have been affected, in nearly 5,000 villages across 18 of the 38 districts, in what officials say has been the worst flooding in three decades. Although there were no reports of fresh flooding in Assam, thousands continue to live in makeshift shelters after floods killed 33 people and displaced 5.5 million.

West Bengal and Orissa are the other two Indian states that have been ravaged by the floods.

In Bangladesh, close to two-thirds of the country's districts are under water. Over 1 million families have been affected by flooding, according to government officials; the death toll after a week's heavy rains stood at 120. Around 20 million people in more than 40 of the country's 64 districts have been affected, while up to 300,000 have been moved into relief camps or are living on raised highways and embankments.

According to Unicef, landslides have been reported in the highlands of Nepal, posing an additional threat to communities already suffering from the deluge. Floods and landslides have claimed 84 lives in the hill country.

The agency has expressed concern over the "unprecedented challenge" posed by the massive flooding to the "delivery of desperately needed humanitarian assistance" by governments and the aid community at large across the region.

Fears are growing that epidemics will strike millions who are marooned, and criticism about the relief efforts is rife. Several cases of diarrhoea and dysentery have already been reported from Bihar.

Marzio Babille, Unicef's health chief in India who is coordinating UN work in Bihar, said aid agencies and authorities must do more to prevent outbreaks of measles, gastroenteritis, dengue fever and other diseases, or "we will see many deaths".

He said 20 helicopters were needed in Bihar, where 87 people have died. "The scale is massive, the challenge is enormous for the government and those who are helping," he said in Patna, Bihar's capital. Unicef is mobilising doctors by land and boat and is immunising children against measles.

Those who have been reached 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 weeping Siraj Ahmed told a local television reporter in Bihar.

In several areas in the state, aid packages air-dropped from army choppers have contained nothing but flour, making them virtually useless. Survivors who have had no access to clean water or food for more than a week say they need matches, candles, salt and drinking water too.

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 about disease outbreaks as the 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. "While we never expect a perfect government, the chief minister should have at least taken the trouble to visit the flood-affected areas," said Sanjiv Nath, a teacher.

In Bangladesh, 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 have been inadequate, say officials. Political parties have refused to participate, demanding that the government end a ban on their activities.

Source: IANS, August 5, 2007
Reuters, August 5, 2007