Flood rains hit new India regions
Pastor Dale Morgan
*Flood rains hit new India regions*
Heavy monsoon rains have caused fresh floods in new areas of India with
dozens of villages affected in the western state of Gujarat.
In north India, where water is receding after two weeks of floods,
health workers are starting a clear up.
The UN has blamed the flooding on climate change and says such disasters
are becoming increasingly common.
About 28m people have been affected by the floods in India, Bangladesh
and Nepal. More than 400 people have died.
Struggling
Indian air force helicopters joined army and civil authorities in rescue
operations after torrential rains cut off more than 400 villages in
Gujarat, killing at least seven people, news agency Associated Press
quoted DA Satya, a top state official, as saying.
The worst-hit Junagadh district received 471mm (18.5in) of rain in 24
hours, submerging several villages under six feet (1.83m) of water, Mr
Satya said.
The scale of disaster has dwarfed relief efforts in north India
More than 17,000 people have been shifted to camps on higher ground in
Rajkot, Junagadh, Jamnagar, Surat and Porbander districts where 564
villages are left without electricity, he said.
Meanwhile, food, drinking water and medicines are being distributed
across north India but the scale of the disaster has dwarfed relief efforts.
Aid workers are still struggling to get to many of the affected.
Meanwhile, a senior UN official said the severe flooding in parts of
South Asia was the result of climate change and that such disasters were
becoming increasingly common.
Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, John Holmes, who is in
Sri Lanka, said: "It is perfectly clear to us that natural disasters of
this kind, extreme weather events, are more frequent and more intense."
He said more must be done to ensure people living in vulnerable areas
would be able to cope.
Contamination
The UN has warned of a health crisis in the South Asian regions affected
unless relief work is stepped up.
"Entire villages are days away from a health crisis if people are not
reached," Unicef's health chief in India, Marzio Babille, has said.
India is the worst-affected country, with some 20 million people in the
states of Assam, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh hit by the floods, according to
the UN.
Some eight million people are affected in Bangladesh and another 300,000
people in southern Nepal.
Although water levels are receding in Nepal and Bangladesh, millions of
people are still marooned on high ground.
The international aid agency Oxfam has launched a $2m appeal to help
about 200,000 people across South Asia with essential food, clean water
and shelter.
Most water sources in affected areas are said to be either contaminated
or submerged.
The World Health Organisation and Unicef said stagnant water was "a
lethal breeding ground" for diseases.
About 1,400 cases of diarrhoea have been reported in Bangladesh this
week, the Word Health Organisation said.
One Bangladeshi on the outskirts of Dhaka, Mohammed Amin, told Reuters
news agency: "My children wait for me to bring them something to eat,
but I am so helpless."