Villagers Eat Raw Food, Toll Rises in S.Asia Floods
Date: 27-Aug-07
Country: INDIA
Nearly 2,000 people have been killed by snake bites,
drowning, diarrhoea and in house collapses since July when
swollen rivers burst their banks, inundating huge areas in
eastern India and Bangladesh.
The toll rose by 74 over the weekend.
In India's impoverished state of Bihar, villagers were
eating wheat flour after mixing it with water because they
could not cook, underlying the inadequacy of government relief
efforts, even after weeks of flooding.
"My family has been chewing flour soaked in water to
survive as we do not have access to firewood to make rotis
(bread)," said Genu Sada, 90, in Begusarai district on Sunday.
At least 60 bodies were found by authorities since Saturday,
pushing the death toll to 480 in Bihar since floods began in
mid-July, officials said.
Angry at meagre relief supplies, villagers blocked roads on
Saturday evening at eight places in the state, demanding more
food, witnesses said.
"We are doing whatever we can to help the people in
crisis," said Satish Chandra Jha, a senior government official.
TRUCKS AS HOMES
In neighbouring West Bengal state, hundreds of people have
turned trucks stranded on highways into makeshift homes. Flood
waters have swamped vast areas, making elevated roads points of
refuge.
"We are sleeping and eating inside the trucks as there is
water everywhere and we have nowhere to go," Anukul Samanta, a
villager in West Midnapore district, said.
In the eastern state of Orissa, at least four villagers
have died from water-borne diseases since Saturday, pushing the
overall toll to 43 in the state since floods began earlier this
month.
Water was receding in many places, officials said.
Separately, health workers in the state were also
struggling to contain a cholera outbreak that has killed 90
people in the past two weeks.
At least 4,000 people in 70 villages were sick and efforts
were underway to stop the disease from reaching epidemic
proportions, officials said.
The outbreak in Orissa has been caused by drinking polluted
water and eating contaminated meat, they added.
Across the border in Bangladesh, hundreds have died over
the past few weeks during massive flooding, with thousands of
people suffering from diarrhoea.
At least 10 more people had died since Saturday, pushing
the toll to 702 in the worst-ever floods in the densely
populated country.
"Water-borne diseases, including diarrhoea are still a
threat," Maksuda Begum, a health official, said.
Monsoon flooding occurs in the region each year but the
rains this season has been particularly heavy and incessant,
leading some experts to blame climate change as a possible
cause.
(Additional reporting by Serajul Islam Quadir in Dhaka and a
Reuters reporter in Bhubaneswar)
