India's flood-hit Bihar grapples with epidemic fears

Sep 3, 2008, 11:06 GMT

New Delhi - As flood waters receded in India's eastern state of Bihar, authorities and the military Wednesday faced the challenge of warding off mass epidemics in inundated areas and relief camps, news reports and officials said.

More than 115 people have died in the state since the Kosi river breached an embankment in neighbouring Nepal and submerged large areas in Bihar on August 18, news outlets reported. The state disaster control organization however confirmed only 63 deaths.

'As the Kosi levels have come down by three feet, the key challenge now is to prevent the outbreak of infectious diseases in inundated areas and overcrowded relief camps,' Bihar's top disaster management official Prataya Amrit said in the state capital Patna.

The relief group ActionAid said the relief camps were witnessing a big influx of rescued flood victims, creating health and sanitation problems.

'Besides the threat of malaria, people are drinking contaminated water due to shortage of potable water which pose a great risk of water and parasite-borne diseases,' PV Unnikrishnan from ActionAid said.

The shortage of doctors and affordable medicines was making matters worse.

'We have come from very far in the search of medicine. My son has very high fever and there is no medical aid,' flood victim Janaki Devi told the CNN-IBN network.

But the state government maintained it had made comprehensive arrangements to prevent outbreaks of disease.

More than 200 health centres have been opened and 900 doctors assisted by paramedical staff were attending to those who have fallen ill, Amrit said.

Meanwhile, the evacuation efforts entered the 'final and critical' stage as an estimated 70,000 people marooned in six areas of flood-hit Supaul and Madhepura districts were to be rescued.

Approximately 650,000 people have been already evacuated and 250,000 have been lodged in 270 relief camps. About 8,000 soldiers and several naval divers have been deployed to rescue people and bring them to the camps.

Based on the inputs by various voluntary agencies, ActionAid estimated that more than 2,000 of the 3.5 million people displaced by the floods could be dead or missing.

But state officials dismissed the figure.

'If that were the case, many more bodies would have been found with the receding waters. It has been more than two weeks since the flooding began,' Sudhir Meen, an official at the state flood control room said.

Meanwhile, India's north-eastern state of Assam has also been hit by floods as 16 of its 27 districts were inundated with the Brahmaputra River overflowing its banks.

Nearly 1 million people were displaced and 15 were dead in the second wave of floods since June as the army carried out operations in the state.

A total of 1,778 people have died this year across India in floods brought on by the annual monsoon rains that last from June to September, according to India's federal Home Ministry.