India Flood Survivors Struggle To Burn Or Bury Dead*

Indian bus passengers wait on a flooded stand in Ahmedabad, 08 August
2007. In common with other areas of India, the western state of Gujarat
is receiving heavy monsoon rains causing flooding and disruption to
transportation and essential services. The annual monsoon has caused
massive flooding and left a trail of destruction from Nepal through
India to Bangladesh, killing around 1,900 people since June. Photo
courtesy AFP.

Disease strikes flood-hit Bangladesh as death toll rises

Dhaka (AFP) Aug 8 - Bangladesh was struggling to contain outbreaks of
water-borne disease as waters receded following major flooding and
monsoon rains, which together have killed 328 people, officials said
Wednesday. At least 18,300 people suffering from diarrhoea have been
admitted to hospitals across the country in the past eight days because
of a lack of clean drinking water, health spokesman Aisha Akhter said.
There have also been outbreaks of respiratory, skin and eye diseases
over the past week, said Akhter, adding there were reports of more than
4,000 new cases of water-borne diseases in the past 24 hours. "The
situation is very acute and alarming," said Shahadat Hossain, a doctor
at the country's largest diarrhoea hospital in the capital, Dhaka. The
hospital admitted 691 patients on Monday compared with an average
300-400 a day. The government said it had mobilised thousands of doctors
and health officials and distributed millions of water purification
tablets to people affected by the floods. Meanwhile, the flooding eased
further with two main Himalayan rivers -- the Brahmaputra and the Ganges
-- showing significant falls in water levels, the Flood Forecasting and
Warning Centre said. At least 28 more deaths, however, were reported
Wednesday, a government spokesman, Shahjahan Sirajee, said, taking the
death toll in the past two weeks to 202. The monsoon season death toll
now stands at 328, including 126 who died in landslides and heavy rains
in June.

by Pratap Chakravarty
Darbhanga, India (AFP) Aug 08, 2007

Sribhagwan Manjhi has taken to counting the dead bodies that float down
the river since raging waters swollen by the monsoon swallowed his
bamboo home in India's Bihar state. This week, he said he had counted 10
corpses. "Often I miss some," Manjhi admitted from his observation point
in Begusarai district, one of the 19 of impoverished Bihar's 38
districts submerged by the worst flooding in 30 years.

Manjhi's macabre hobby points to the serious problem of disposing of
dead bodies, which for Hindus normally involves cremation.

Survivors said they were searching for dry timber to cremate the dead
from the myriad villages and hamlets completely washed away by the six
rivers criss-crossing this eastern region.

Nearby Darbhanga district has a sizeable Muslim population and thus an
even bigger problem, as most traditional graveyards are under several
feet of water.

"It is a very tricky situation as we can't just bury our dead anywhere,"
said Afzal, one of the many stranded Muslims, who gave only one name.

District administrator Upendra Sharma confirmed that graveyards were
flooded in Darbhanga, where 2.2 million people have been displaced.

"Many graveyards are under water but we will help people to find burial
places," Sharma said, as local people pointed out that recently buried
bodies were floating to the surface in several cemeteries.

"We do not have such reports but I will look into it," the harried
official said, noting he had to focus first on the supply of drinking
water and food to tens of thousands of people facing starvation.

Although Bihar's rivers are now receding after three days without rain,
only raised roads and clusters of tree-tops stand out above the
floodwaters in Darbhanga.

"The (dead body) issue needs to be addressed urgently because after the
rivers recede rotting corpses will compound the already-existing risk to
general health," said Alok Verma, a volunteer expert at a first-aid centre.

In Samastipur district, where a spate of boat accidents this week left
more than 65 dead, villagers said sodden wood was causing anguish for
bereaved Hindu families who could not get funeral pyres to light.

"We had to scavenge timber from an overturned truck for a cremation,"
said Lagan Ram in Samastipur, where 1.4 million people are stranded and
around 587 villages inundated.

Sharawan Kumar, the district magistrate, said the authorities were
concerned only with flood-related deaths.

"All flood-related deaths are already being brought here for autopsies
but others dying of natural causes can be brought to the town which is
not submerged and we will provide the facilities," Kumar said.

"Besides, entire areas are not under water and relatives can seek higher
ground for burial or cremation purposes.

"Also, if there's large-scale shortage of dry timber then the
administration will come out and help families of the deceased," the
official told AFP by telephone.

The annual monsoon has caused massive flooding and left a trail of
destruction from Nepal through India to Bangladesh, killing around 1,900
people since June.

earlier related report

Flooded South Asia cries out for food aid as health fears rise

Patna, India (AFP) Aug 08, 2007 India and Bangladesh battled Wednesday
to deliver food and water to millions of flood victims as South Asia's
raging rivers recede leaving 1,900 dead, a trail of destruction and fear
of epidemics. The United Nations and charity Oxfam said millions of
dollars in aid were needed to get relief supplies to some of the 28
million people displaced across India, Bangladesh and Nepal by the worst
monsoon-triggered flooding in decades.

In Dhaka, the authorities were facing outbreaks of water-borne diseases
as floodwaters fell and the local death toll climbed to 328 people,
officials said Wednesday.

At least 18,300 people suffering from diarrhoea have been admitted to
hospitals across Bangladesh in the past eight days due to a shortage of
drinking water, health spokesman Aisha Akhter said.

There have also been outbreaks of respiratory, skin and eye diseases
over the past week, said Akhter, noting reports of more than 4,000 new
cases of water-borne diseases in the past 24 hours.

"The situation is very acute and alarming," said Shahadat Hossain, a
doctor at the country's largest diarrhoea hospital in the capital, Dhaka.

The government said it had mobilised thousands of medical workers and
distributed millions of water purification tablets.

Bangladesh's flood monitoring agency said inundated areas were still
suffering acute shortages of food even as officials said 8,000 tonnes of
food had been distributed since late July.

The military-backed government has appealed to political parties,
wealthy citizens and foreign countries to help rush food supplies to
nine million flood victims.

In India's Bihar state, some 12 million people have seen their homes and
farmland partially or totally submerged after the worst flooding in 30
years.

Health experts also voiced fears of disease and the main hospital in
state capital Patna reported scores of patients turning up with symptoms
of waterborne viruses such as hepatitis.

"People are being treated wherever they can lie down and frankly we
don't know what we will do as more are being brought in everyday," a
hospital spokesman told AFP.

Bihar's chief relief coordinator, R.K. Singh, said distribution of safe
drinking water to marooned populations was proving to be an Herculean task.

"In 70 percent of cases water pouches burst on impact after being
air-dropped and so we will now consider putting plastic water bottles in
the food packets that are dropped by helicopters," he said.

India's ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and home minister
Shivraj Patil visited Bihar on Tuesday to assess losses from the floods
that inundated 1.1 million hectares (2.7 million acres) of farmland.

The state asked the government for two million tonnes of wheat and rice
to feed its flood-affected population, including two million people
still living in the open.

"We have seen for ourselves the massive destruction caused by the floods
and the centre (national government) will do everything to mitigate the
sufferings of the masses," Patil told reporters.

National authorities have put the estimated losses to the state at about
38 million dollars.

Huge swathes of Uttar Pradesh, Orissa and Assam states were also
submerged during the rains, affecting another 6.5 million people.

Assam relief minister Bhumidhar Barman told AFP the situation had
greatly improved in the northeastern state, where 870,000 hectares were
submerged and 9,291 homes destroyed.

India's national disaster management agency said 1,428 people had died
of monsoon-related causes from the start of the season in June to
Tuesday. But the figure did not include deaths from numerous boat
accidents in Bihar late Monday, bringing the toll to around 1,500.

In Nepal, at least 95 people have died since the monsoon began at the
start of June, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of
Humanitarian Affairs. More than 330,000 people have been affected,
mostly in the southern plains bordering Bihar.

Source: Agence France-Presse