Threat of disease looms in India after floods

[Ewigen]

Threat of disease looms in India after floods

By Rupam Jain Nair

SURAT, (Worldnews Sun 13 Aug 2006 6:44 AM ET)- Health authorities in India fanned out on Sunday to disinfect several areas as rotting animal carcasses and poor sanitation following eight days of flooding raised fears of disease.
Nearly 400 people have been killed and millions more have been made homeless after India's annual monsoon rains triggered rivers to overflow and forced authorities to release vast amounts of water from brimming dams.
The flooding -- mainly in India's western states of Gujarat and Maharashtra and the southern state of Andhra Pradesh -- has submerged villages, damaged crops and hit key businesses.
In Gujarat's flourishing diamond city of Surat, nearly 8,000 units have suspended operations after muddy waters gushed into workshops and safe deposit lockers and traders estimate the gem industry is facing production losses of $30 million daily.
As water levels receded in Surat, which was almost completely submerged, garbage and carcasses of animals lay strewn on streets and a threat of disease loomed over the city of three million people.
On Sunday, residents came out of their homes to throw out rotting food and soggy mattresses.
"It is a big challenge to clean the city as after the water receded people have started piling all their garbage on the roads," said S.R. Rao, a senior official, adding that teams were disinfecting areas to prevent an outbreak of disease.
"The stench is unbearable. We are leaving Surat and will return only when the city is cleaner and safer," said Jaideep Dubey, a software professional.
In neighbouring Maharashtra, where more than 270 people have died, authorities said they had sent chlorinated water in tankers to some areas though immediate threat of an epidemic.
In Andhra Pradesh, seven people have died of high fever in relief camps housing tens of thousands of people who were evacuated from villages swamped with flood waters.
"We have taken up bleaching and mosquito fogging in all flooded villages and relief camps on a war footing," I.V. Subba Rao, state health secretary said.
More than 120 people have died in the state including a fisherman who drowned overnight after he rescued 11 people, including three children, who were stranded on a rooftop.
Meanwhile hundreds of tribal people from marooned villages around Polavaram town -- 365 km (225 miles) southeast of the state capital, Hyderabad -- gathered at the banks of a river hoping to get food, water and medicine from relief boats.
"We filled our stomach with some leaves and roots for a couple of days," said Punem Veerayamma, a local villager. "We have exhausted them and now our children are starving." ($1=46.45 rupees) (Additional reporting by S.Radha Kumar in HYDERABAD; Krittivas Mukherkjee in MUMBAI)