10 Million ARe Made Homeless AFter Monsoon Deluges India
Wasbir Hussain in Gauhati, India
Some 14 million people in India and five million in Bangladesh were displaced or marooned by the flooding, according to government figures yesterday, with at least 120 people killed in recent days in India and 46 more in Bangladesh.
Among the hardest-hit regions was the north-eastern Indian state of Assam, the two northern states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and neighbouring Bangladesh, where incessant rains have caused dozens of swollen rivers to inundate surrounding regions.
"The situation is grim," said Bhumidhar Barman, a minister in the Assam state government.
The monsoon season in south Asia runs from June to September and is always dangerous, with more than 1,000 people dying last year, most by drowning, landslides, house collapses or electrocution.
In New Delhi, India's Meteorological Department said unusual monsoon patterns this year led to heavier than usual rains. "We've been getting constant rainfall in these areas for nearly 20 days," said BP Yadav, a spokesman for the department.
In Assam some 100,000 displaced people were staying in government relief camps while hundreds of thousands more sought shelter on higher ground, setting up makeshift dwellings. Millions more were cut off from the rest of the country.
Dibakar Misra, a government official in the worst-hit Dhemaji region in Assam, said railway services had been suspended after a long stretch of track was damaged. People had to be rescued in boats as water was 30 feet deep in some places.
Medical teams are trying to visit different regions by boat to make sure there are no outbreaks of water-borne diseases.
A similar situation exists in Bihar, where 120 relief centres have been set up, said Manoj Srivastava, a state disaster management official.
In Uttar Pradesh the army has been called in to evacuate people from 500 villages under water, said Diwakar Tripathi, a senior government official.
On Wednesday, 28 people died when the overcrowded boat evacuating them from their village sank.