DHAKA, 8 August 2004 — Hundreds of thousands of people made homeless by monsoon floods were confined to camps yesterday, facing the specter of an epidemic due to inadequate drinking water, food and medicine.
Fourteen more people were reported dead in the country in the last 24 hours from diseases such as pneumonia and diarrhea, raising the flood-related death toll there to 683.
“All types of diseases are spreading quickly and may take an unmanageable turn as the floodwaters recede and millions of people in shelters return to their ravaged homes,” said Dr. Sajjad Hossain in northern Sirajganj district.
He said many hospitals and clinics were short of saline solution and medicines.
“The government, NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and social and political groups should do much more for the flood victims,” said one northern district official.
Weeks of incessant rains have also destroyed crops in large parts of the farm-dependent region and forced the closure of industrial units, causing hundreds of millions of dollars of losses. The floods have disrupted rail and road links as well as communications and power networks.
Meanwhile, a lake formed by landslides in China’s Tibet region is threatening to burst its banks and inundate hundreds of villages in neighboring India, officials said as they ordered villagers in the border state of Himachal Pradesh to evacuate. The lake, rising by the hour, is six km long and 1.5 km wide, state official L.R. Jhamtha said.
He said the lake could burst its banks and gush into the Sutlej River, which flows through Himachal Pradesh and Punjab states before draining into the Indus River in Pakistan.
The Sutlej is already rising because of monsoon rains, which have wreaked havoc across South Asia and left more than 1,900 people in the region dead in six weeks of flooding. “The situation is very serious,” said Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, Himachal Pradesh’s top elected official.
Monsoon rains aren’t affecting the lake, although Jhamtha said it was not clear if lake waters were rising because of Himalayan streams flowing into it or because of the melting of nearby glaciers.
Jhamtha said paramilitary soldiers and border troops have been alerted and hundreds of villagers of Kinnaur district in Himachal Pradesh are being moved to safety. A hydroelectric plant located near the border was shut down, causing power outages in parts of the state.
The lake last overflowed in August 2000, killing more than 100 people and washing away dozens of bridges and roads in Himachal Pradesh.
Indian officials said Chinese authorities alerted them this week to the rising waters in the lake, located 35 km from the India-China border.
An Indian team of hydrologists was heading to the site to explore ways to safely drain water from the lake, Singh said.
Fears of a controversial giant dam overflowing in western India receded after the floods showed signs of easing, officials said.
After wreaking havoc in Bihar, the rains have moved westward to Gujarat, Punjab and Haryana. Authorities have been preparing to evacuate thousands of residents from more than a dozen villages downstream from the 110-foot Narmada Dam in Gujarat on Friday after it began overflowing due to torrential rains in its catchment areas.
But a crisis appeared to have been averted yesterday after the rains eased and officials said they had successfully diverted some water from the dam into canals.
“The inflow of water into the dam is not alarming any more. But the alert will continue, as we are still releasing water from the dam,” said Rajiv Topno, chief of Broach district, where the dam is located.
