AFP, Kolkata :
Floods from days of torrential rain have now claimed at least 180 lives in India with one million people sheltering in relief camps after fleeing surging waters, officials said Tuesday.
Rivers have burst their banks, hitting thousands of villages in parts of West Bengal as well as northeastern Manipur state, where roads and bridges have been cut and communications were patchy.
Most of those 180 died from drowning, while at least four people have been killed in a landslide that buried a remote village in Manipur bordering Myanmar, where heavy monsoon rains have also wreaked havoc.
The death toll jumped from around 120 on Monday, after the discovery of more bodies in West Bengal and the western state of Gujarat where water levels have receded, allowing families to return home.
“The death toll due to flooding in West Bengal rose to 70, with roads and farms in 13,200 villages remaining under water,” disaster management minister Javed Ahmad Khan told AFP.
“More than one million people are now staying in around 1,600 relief camps opened in schools and government offices,” he said.
The release of water from brimming dams has exacerbated the flooding in West Bengal after Cyclone Komen struck the east coast on Friday, Khan said. “Rivers in 13 districts are flowing over their danger marks. The situation is grim.”
Another five people have died in Orissa and 35 in northern Rajasthan state, officials there said.
“The worst is over. Now we are focusing on relief and rehabilitation of affected people,” Rajasthan’s disaster minister, Gulab Singh Kataria, told AFP.
In Manipur, television footage showed villagers erecting a bamboo bridge over a muddy river after flood waters left them stranded, and a child trying to cross by floating in a rubber tyre.
Rescuers were still searching for villagers feared buried in a landslide that struck their hamlet on Saturday, with four bodies found, Jason Shimray, an official overseeing the rescue operation, said.
Shimray said 10 people feared killed in the landslide have been found alive, although details were sketchy. In the western state of Gujarat, flooding has eased in recent days, but the death toll has reached 72 after the discovery of more bodies, director of relief operations Bipin Bhatt told AFP.
India, which receives nearly 80 percent of its annual rainfall from June to September, sees tragedy strike every monsoon season.
Myanmar asks for international aid to handle floods
The Myanmar government has appealed for international aid amid floods which have killed at least 46 people and affected more than 210,000.
Four areas in the country have been declared disaster zones with widespread flooding and landslides caused by heavy monsoon rain.
Many areas are still completely cut off by high waters or damaged roads.
The government has admitted giving a weak response to the disaster, according to state media.
The Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper quoted Information Minister Ye Htut as saying that flood warnings had not reached everyone, and there had been confusion over evacuations.
The UN says the flooding has destr
Myanmar experiences flooding every monsoon season but has been particularly badly hit this year.
‘We are co-operating’
The call for international aid stands in contrast to the stance in 2008 when Cyclone Nargis killed more than 130,000 but the government refused outside help.
The information ministry of Myanmar (also known as Burma) posted its appeal to UN agencies and donor countries for humanitarian assistance on its Facebook page late Monday night.
The statement also appeared in local newspapers on Tuesday.
“We are co-operating and inviting international assistance. We have started contacting possible donor organisations and countries,” Ye Htut told Reuters news agency.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) said agencies were scaling up their emergency response.
It said the World Food Programme had started providing food rations to 47,800 people, with the aim of reaching 150,000 people eventually.
The UN children’s agency Unicef has distributed water purification and hygiene kits, and agencies are preparing to request for UN funds for financial support.
State media said the government had so far provided 1.5bn Myanmar kyats (£780,000; $1.2m) in emergency aid.
Ocha said that transportation, electricity and communication were disrupted across the disaster zones.
Access to these areas “remains a major challenge” with debris floating in rivers – a hazard for boats – and landslides that have blocked roads, it said in a statement.
The food supply over the long term will be problematic as well, with widespread flooding of farmland and the loss of grains and livestock, it added.
