London: Fifteen children drowned in flash floods that swept through Bangladesh, and another 3.5 million are in desperate need of safe drinking water as the risk of waterborne infections rises, according to UNICEF’s country representative on Friday (Jun 24).
“That is a staggering number of children, and it has risen in recent days. Huge sections are completely submerged, with no access to safe drinking water or food. Right today, children require assistance “Sheldon Yett stated
After severe flooding hit a fourth of the South Asian nation, the government and aid organisations rushed to give help, including water and other supplies.
Yett told a press conference in Geneva that the floods had also interrupted health facilities, closed schools, and disrupted malnutrition treatment for hundreds of children.
Diarrhoea cases had grown to 2,700 by the middle of this week, he noted.
Authorities in Bangladesh and neighboring India have warned of the possibility of a disease outbreak. More than 4.5 million people have been stranded in Bangladesh, with many died, many of them as a result of the worst floods in the Sylhet region in the northeast in more than 100 years.
Indian air force helicopters have been deployed in the eastern Indian state of Assam to drop food and other supplies to isolated areas.
Source: Reuters
