Assam seeks UNICEF help to combat flood fury

At least six more people drowned overnight in Assam, taking the toll of those dead in floods to 93.

At least six more people drowned overnight in Assam, taking the toll of those dead in floods and landslides triggered by heavy monsoon rains to 93.

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The floods have displaced up to nine million people in Assam alone, officials on Saturday said.

A police spokesman said four children drowned late Friday in Assam's Kamrup district, while trying to escape the floodwaters in a bamboo raft.

"Four minors of a single family were with their parents trying to flee their flooded village when the raft they were rowing lost balance. The four children drowned, while their parents managed to swim to safety," the police official said.

Two more people drowned overnight in separate incidents when their boats capsized in Dhemaji district.

"The flood situation remains very critical, with nearly nine million people uprooted from their homes. Some 8,000 villages were washed away in 26 of the state's 27 districts now engulfed by the floods," Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said.

The Assam government on Saturday appealed to the UNICEF to rush one million halogen tablets required for purifying drinking water sources.

"The worst is yet to come and we are worried. The post flood situation is always very dangerous. That is when we generally find an outbreak of waterborne diseases among victims," Assam Health Minister Bhumidhar Barman said.

A federal health team is currently visiting flood-hit areas to prevent the outbreak of an epidemic.

"We need more doctors and medicines, mainly oral rehydration salt (ORS) packets, for treating patients with symptoms of diarrhoea," the Health Minister said.

A Central Water Commission bulletin on Saturday said that the Brahmaputra river was flowing above the danger mark at various places.

"There would be more rains in the next two days over the northeast," the local weather office said in its forecast.

Millions of people have been sheltered in makeshift camps made of tarpaulin sheets or in government buildings located in higher areas.

"We don't know how long we will have to stay like this. There is no sanitation and people are suffering from various ailments," said Trishna Devi, a housewife in western Assam's Nalbari district.

Many parts of Assam are cut off, with floodwater overtopping highways and creating big craters on the road.

Road links between Tripura and the rest of India have remained snapped for three days now, with heavy mudslides blocking a stretch of the highway.

In the neighbouring Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan, three people have been killed by floods and landslides during the past week.

"The flood carrying mud, rocks and uprooted trees washed away houses and shops, besides uprooting several bridges, leaving a trail of destruction in the kingdom," a Bhutanese foreign ministry official said on telephone from capital Thimphu.

"There were reports of people climbing up electric poles and clinging on to them to escape the fury of the floods."