Over 2,200 dead in India: India Partners continues flood relief

Eugene, OR — Tuesday, August 28, 2007. According to the Government of India, 2,217 people have lost their lives in India to the southwest monsoon since June. And with heavy rainfall predicted for the rest of this week, the number is expected to rise.

Close to 3,200 people in South Asia have died as the heavy monsoon rains and floods have taken their toll. Rivers are overflowing, tens of thousands of villages have been washed out, and refugees have numbered in the tens of millions. The number of people affected will rise as floodwaters recede, and water-borne diseases continue to spread. Outbreaks of diarrhea and cholera have been confirmed.

In Bihar, the hardest hit state in India, almost 10,000 villages with a population of over 20 million have been affected in the state's worst flooding in 30 years. More than 530 medical teams and 7,000 boats have been deployed in the state to provide medical care to the survivors, according to government sources. Military helicopters have dropped thousands of food packets to those affected.

In the eastern state of Orissa, state health workers were working to contain an outbreak of cholera. "People in several low-lying areas – where roads were submerged and water gushed into houses- suffered enormous panic", wrote a local source in Cuttack, Orissa.

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