3rde September, 2008

More than three million people have been uprooted from their homes and more than 90 are believed to have been killed in what is being reported as the worst flooding to hit north-east India in 50 years.

The World Health Organization says 16 districts in India’s Bihar state has been among the areas hardest hit. The organisation has expressed concern over the possibility of disease outbreaks.

Daniel Toole, UNICEF's regional director for South Asia, said the agency’s priority was to deliver supplies such as medicine, clean water, sanitation equipment and food to the most vulnerable including women and children.

“Even at the best of times, South Asia has many of the poorest people in the world,” he said. “These massive floods can wash away even the most basic hope that families have.”

Crops and property have also been destroyed in the floods.

Experts have warned that large areas of Bihar state - already one of the nation’s poorest - may remain underwater for months with work to divert the Kosi river - which burst its banks - not likely to be successful until the end of the wet season in October.

- DAVID ADAMS