Floods in India, Nepal displace nearly 4m people, with at least 189 dead
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Indian National Disaster Response Force personnel surveying an area where some shanty houses collapsed into a canal due to heavy rain in New Delhi yesterday. PHOTO: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
GUWAHATI • Nearly four million people in India's north-eastern state of Assam and neighbouring Nepal have been displaced by heavy flooding from monsoon rain, with dozens missing as deaths rose to at least 189, government officials said yesterday.
The overflowing Brahmaputra River, which flows through China's Tibet, India and Bangladesh, has damaged crops and triggered mudslides, displacing millions of people, officials said.
More than 2.75 million people in Assam have been displaced by three waves of floods since late May that have claimed 79 lives after two more deaths were reported overnight, a state government official said yesterday.
"The flood situation remains critical with most of the rivers flowing menacingly above the danger mark," Assam Water Resources Minister Keshab Mahanta said.
In neighbouring Nepal, meanwhile, the government asked residents along its southern plains yesterday to remain alert as heavy monsoon rain was expected to pound the Himalayan nation where more than 100 have died in floods and landslides since last month, officials said.
Some 110 people were killed and another 100 injured as landslides and flash floods washed or swept away homes, upended roads and bridges, and displaced hundreds of others in 26 of the country's 77 districts, police said.
Home Ministry official Murari Wasti said the death toll was expected to rise, with 48 people still missing.
"Search and rescue teams are looking for those who are missing in different places but chances of finding them alive are slim," Mr Wasti told Reuters.
Mr Barun Paudel of the weather forecasting office in the capital, Kathmandu, said heavy rain was expected to pound much of the mainly mountainous nation in the next four days. "We have urged residents to remain alert against possible landslides and floods," he said.
Landslides and flash floods are common in Nepal and Indian states, including Assam and Bihar, during the June to September annual rainy season. REUTERS
