Floods recede, but Asian death toll rises to 311

Water levels in several northern India rivers fell today as heavy monsoon rains eased, but the death toll across South Asia from recent floods reached 311 amid fears of an outbreak of diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases.

Thirteen bodies surfaced in eastern Bihar state as six major rivers started receding after creating havoc in 19 of 36 districts of the state for a week, Manoj Srivastava, the state disaster management secretary, said today.

There has been no significant rainfall in the region for the past three days.

Another person, 17-year-old Sarfraz Ansari, died yesterday when he fell from the rooftop of his marooned village home into the flood waters while trying to catch a food packet dropped by an Indian air force helicopter in Darbhanga district, said Upendera Sharma, the district magistrate. That raised India’s overall death toll to 191.

Another 120 people have died in Bangladesh, where major rivers have also started receding in the worst-hit eastern and central regions, with monsoon rains weakening, the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre said Sunday in Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital.

Shortages have led to people fighting to grab relief material in the worst-hit areas of India’s Bihar state, officials said.