Flood-hit Indian state appeals for more help
Flood-hit northern India is in dire need of international aid on the level of that seen after the 2004 Asian tsunami, a state official said yesterday.
A large swathe of the already desperately poor state of Bihar is likely to remain under water for several months, leaving authorities coping with millions of people who have lost everything, officials and aid workers said.
"We will definitely need the support of international organisations and agencies, the same as after the tsunami (in 2004) or the Gujarat earthquake" in 2001, said Bihar disasters minister Nitish Mishra.
"It is not possible for just the government to have a complete rehabilitation policy on its own. Whatever more is available, we need it."
The flooding started on August 18, when a river burst through defences upstream in Nepal and changed course to cut across a large rural area in Bihar state.
The UN has said at least a million people are homeless, although the aid group Save the Children said the figure could be five times higher.
"This is six times the number of people that were made homeless by the cyclone in Myanmar four months ago and 7.5 times the number of people in India that were made homeless after the tsunami in 2004," the agency said.
"The reported death toll is not high, but the number of people affected by this flooding is on an unimaginable scale."
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