Christian Message Boards: Floods Kill 175 in South Asia

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Posted by Kindgo (Member # 2) on :

http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20020724_860.html

DHAKA, Bangladesh July 24 — Monsoon rains have killed at least 175 people in Nepal, Bangladesh and India with swollen rivers surging through embankments, flooding thousands of villages and triggering mudslides, relief officials said Wednesday.

The rising waters have forced millions in the three countries to flee their homes and search for higher ground.

The worst displacement in the region from this month's weather was in Bangladesh, where more than 2 million people sought shelter in schools or atop embankments built in case of floods, according to relief officials in the capital, Dhaka. Many people have lost their houses, crops and livestock.

A series of mudslides Wednesday in the southeastern city of Chittagong killed two people. The month's death toll of 69 includes 38 people who died from diarrhea caused by drinking polluted water, the officials said.

Monsoon floods are common in Bangladesh, a low-lying delta nation of 130 million people. Most of its 250 rivers originate in the Himalayas and run through neighboring India before draining into the Bay of Bengal.

In Nepal, the Interior Ministry reported that at least 100 people were killed this week and 49 were missing. Rain has washed away more than 600 homes, leaving nearly 1,000 families homeless, the Interior Ministry said.

The 49 missing likely have been swept away by rushing waters or buried in villages smashed by landslides since the annual monsoon deluge began to drench the Himalayan kingdom on Sunday, the ministry said.

Katmandu received a record 8 inches of rain on Monday alone, Nepal's Department of Hydrology and Meteorology said.

And in India, a 2-year-old boy was swept away Wednesday by swirling waters in northeastern Assam state, officials said, bringing that country's toll to six this month. More than 1 million people have been affected by floods there even as other portions of India suffer drought-like conditions.

The Brahmaputra River burst its banks at several places in the state on Wednesday and submerged an additional 130 villages, Flood Control Minister Nurjamal Sarkar said.

The fresh flooding forced nearly 300,000 villagers in the Morigaon district to abandon their homes and move to higher ground, said Pervez Shah, the top district administrator.

Authorities said they were distributing food to people camping in government buildings while medical teams worked around the clock to prevent outbreaks of diarrhea and cholera.

Meanwhile, large sections of India, including its northwestern breadbasket, were facing drought-like conditions.