Millions displaced by Asian floods
Millions of people have been displaced
Friday, 03, Aug 2007 06:25
Nearly 20 million people have become homeless or marooned after devastating floods have struck south Asia.
Monsoons have hit the region in the past few weeks, with heavy rainfall particularly striking Bangladesh, Nepal and Gangetic plains and north-eastern states in India.
About 200 people are reported to have died and villages have become cut off after roads were damaged.
Food supplies have been seriously affected, with crops destroyed by the flood waters.
Relief workers are attempting to help people with access to food and medicine.
Since the end of July Oxfam has been working to provide 35,000 people affected by the floods in the south of Pakistan with drinking water, emergency shelter and items to improve hygiene.
According to the Red Cross more than half a million people have been marooned in towns and villages in the north of Bangladesh after the Brahmaputra and Padma rivers burst their banks.
Thousands of people are trying to live on their rooftops for more than a week and in India's north-eastern state of Assam thousands of displaced people are staying in makeshift shelters under tarpaulin sheets by the side of roads and on bridges.
The charity is also warning hundreds of thousands of hectares of farmland have been submerged across Assam, affecting around two million paddy farmers.
"The scale of the flooding this year is mind-numbing, with millions displaced, and no sign of a halt to the rain," said British Red Cross chief executive Sir Nicholas Young after visiting India.
The India Meteorological Department is warning there could be a revival in monsoon activity over central and adjoining peninsular India, as a low pressure area is likely to form over northwest Bay of Bengal.