| |
| |
![]() |
| |
|
| |
|
| |
|
PATNA, India : Rescue workers in flood-hit northern India have brought over 800,000 people to safety, but tens of thousands more are still believed to be trapped, officials said Friday.
Large swathes of the already impoverished state of Bihar were flooded after defences upstream in Nepal broke, shifting the flow of the Kosi river away from its normal course and onto farmland.
Indian armed forces, other official bodies and aid groups have since used boats to hunt for survivors, some of whom have spent up to two weeks trapped on roofs or isolated high ground without food or clean water.
"A major part of evacuation is over with more than 800,000 people evacuated and shifted to safe places. About 280,000 of them are taking shelter at relief camps," Bihar Disaster Management Minister Nitish Mishra told reporters.
"It was an unprecedented operation, not only in India but in the world," Mishra said, but cautioned that some 50,000 to 100,000 people were still believed to be trapped in flooded areas.
Rescue operations were continuing, although there have been reports of many people refusing to leave their villages -- even though they are waist- or neck-deep in water.
Around 100 people are confirmed to have died in the floods, but the real number is certain to be far higher as many were simply washed away by the deep water and strong currents that swept through rural areas.
State officials said 1,100 square kilometres (420 square miles) of land had been badly hit and at least 300,000 homes destroyed.
Water levels have receded in recent days, allowing aid workers to access more areas and bring more people out, said R K Singh, principal secretary in Bihar's disaster management department.
But officials also cautioned that the drop in water levels was likely to be temporary, with the Kosi river likely to hit its peak flow on several weeks towards the end of the monsoon season, at the end of September or beginning of October.
In Nepal, where 50,000 people have also been left homeless, officials say they cannot begin work on repairing the river defences until the monsoon season ends.
Separately, the northeastern Indian state of Assam is also being hit by monsoon flooding of the Brahmaputra river and its tributaries.
"A total of 19 of the state's 27 districts are hit. The floods have displaced about 1.5 million people, with the overall situation continuing to be critical," Assam relief and rehabilitation minister, Bhumidhar Barman, told AFP.
Downstream in Bangladesh, 20 of the country's 64 districts have been hit with officials estimating that a quarter of the low-lying delta country's landmass was under water.
Emergency authorities warned the situation would worsen during the weekend.
In July and August last year, flooding killed more than 1,000 people in Bangladesh, forcing millions to flee their homes. The floods also wiped out crops, contributing to significant food price rises in one of the world's poorest nations.
- AFP /ls
|
