Flood victims face health epidemic in Asia

Health workers disinfected wells and distributed chlorine tablets to thousands of villagers rushing back to their homes as water levels receded sharply in flooded rivers in northern India, officials said today.

Many defied warnings by Uttar Pradesh state authorities to remain in relief camps for another day or two to ensure it was safe to return to their flood-hit homes, said LB Prasad, state director-general of health services.

More than two weeks of monsoon rains across much of northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal have flooded rivers, inundated plains and killed at least 390 people and stranded 19 million more, officials said.

Villagers have been given chlorine tablets to purify drinking water and were advised to take precautions for the next few days, Prasad said in Lucknow, capital of Uttar Pradesh.

International aid groups have warned of an impending health crisis if help does not reach millions of people in South Asia stranded by heavy flooding amid forecasts of more rain in the devastated region.

With weather clearing up this week, aid workers, government officials and the military have rushed food, clean drinking water and medicines to flood-hit areas in a bid to ward off an epidemic of waterborne diseases.

But the scale of the disaster has dwarfed relief efforts.

“Entire villages are days away from a health crisis if people are not reached in the coming days,” said Marzio Babille, Unicef’s health chief in India.

“Many of the affected areas are home to poor communities who suffer from poor sanitation and hygiene year round,” Babille said in a statement. Stagnant waters left by the floods are a lethal breeding ground for diarrhoea and waterborne diseases at an epidemic level, he said.

Babille said people were also at risk from skin infections, malaria, leptospirosis and dengue fever. Children, who make up 40% of South Asia’s population, were particularly susceptible.

In India, officials said the problem was exasperated by contaminated wells.

More than 1,000 people in Uttar Pradesh state reported sick, mainly from cholera and gastroenteritis, officials said.

In Bangladesh, there were 1,400 reported cases of diarrhoea this week, said Fadela Chaib, a spokeswoman for the Word Health Organisation.