Perilous
Times and Climate Change
More than 1,000 die in Southeast Asia floods
by Staff Writers
Bangkok (AFP) Nov 10, 2011
At least one thousand people have died in massive floods across
Southeast Asia in recent months, according to an AFP tally on
Thursday, and millions of homes and livelihoods have been
destroyed.
The death toll in Thailand -- grappling with its worst floods in
half a century -- has reached 533, the government said, and the
slowly advancing waters are now threatening the heart of Bangkok,
a city of 12 million people.
In neighbouring Cambodia, the most severe floods in over a decade
have killed 248 people, the United Nations Office for the
Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in its latest
flood report.
Vietnam's government has reported at least 100 deaths, including
many children, in southern and central parts of the country.
At least 106 people died in flash floods caused by heavy storms in
central Myanmar in late October, a government official in the
military-dominated country told AFP at the time, on condition of
anonymity.
In the tiny nation of Laos, 30 people lost their lives in the
floods, according to OCHA.
The UN body, which does not include Myanmar in its flood updates,
also reported 98 deaths in the Philippines.
Vast swathes of rice paddy fields have been damaged or destroyed
in Southeast Asia as a result of the inundations triggered by
unusually heavy monsoon rains that began some three months ago.
"To date, nearly nine million people have been affected by
torrential rains and overflowing rivers," OCHA said in the
statement.
"Flooding in many parts of Southeast Asia remains dire after
months of being inundated, and more rains are expected in north
and northeast Thailand."