Deadly landslide in S Asia floods
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Deadly landslide in S Asia floods*
Five people are confirmed dead and 55 are missing believed dead after
heavy rain triggered a landslide that buried Dharla village in the
Indian Himalayas.
Record rainfall across Himachal Pradesh state in the past several days
has led to the deaths of 40 other people.
The landslide follows massive flooding in large parts of India and Nepal
and in Bangladesh where there are serious outbreaks of water-borne diseases.
Figures for the death toll from the floods vary widely from 1,000 to 3,000.
At least 20 million people across South Asia have been affected by the
floods.
'Completely crushed'
The army has been called in to help look for bodies in Dharla village in
Himachal Pradesh.
An Indian police official in Dharla told Reuters news agency he did not
expect to find any survivors from the landslide that buried the village.
"Huge boulders 20 to 25-feet high have completely crushed the houses,"
said Vidya Chand Negi.
"There is so much debris that has fallen on the houses that nothing
except [a] few lanterns are visible."
He said 14 houses and a health centre had been buried under the mud and
rocks.
At least 40 other people have been killed elsewhere in the state as a
result of landslides, flash floods and house collapses caused by the
heavy rain.
'Grim situation'
At least 500 people in Bangladesh have died from this year's monsoon
floods, including 38 on Tuesday night, officials said.
At least 110,000 people have been admitted to hospitals to be treated
for water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea since flooding began in late
July.
To deal with the outbreak of disease, the government has deployed mobile
medical teams, cancelled leave for doctors and set up a temporary
hospital to deal with diarrhoea patients in the capital, Dhaka.
"The overall diarrhoea situation is grim," said Ayesha Khatoon, a senior
government health official. "Every day there is a rush of patients."
The International Centre for Diarrhoeal Diseases Research admitted more
than 1,000 patients on Tuesday, its highest number ever.
"We expect the flow will increase further," said Dr Asharul Islam Khan.
As the flood waters recede, many people in relief camps are returning to
what is left of their homes with little food or clean drinking water.
United Nations aid agencies are distributing food aid, water
purification kits and mosquito nets to affected areas of India, Nepal
and Bangladesh.
Oxfam has blamed poorly built or maintained embankments for worsening
the flooding in Bangladesh and India.
India's Bihar state was the worst hit, followed by Uttar Pradesh.
An Oxfam aid worker told the BBC news website that floodwaters racing
down the Kamla river in Bihar tore huge gaps in the river's flood defences.
"When the river is in full flow there is upwards of 2.4m (8ft) of water
one mile (1.6km) wide," said Ian Bray.
"With such an enormous body of water no wonder these earth embankments
give way.
"It is just like the levies breaking outside New Orleans when Hurricane
Katrina struck," he said.