INDIA: WARNINGS OF an impending flood in India's eastern Bihar state were ignored by the authorities, leading to widespread chaos in which at least 100 people have died so far and more than 2.5 million have been made homeless.
Official sources have revealed that state chief engineer E. Satyanarayan, stationed on the Nepal border, where the Kosi river breached its embankments last month, had sent flood management officials four warnings between August 9th and 16th, alerting them to the danger.
However, the messages piled up on the desk of the official they were sent to, who was on holiday leave.
On August 16th, with the situation worsening, the engineer sent telegrams to 11 senior officials associated with flood water management in the state capital, Patna, but these were also ignored.
Two days later, the Kosi, which flows southward from neighbouring Nepal, burst its embankment at the point Mr Satyanarayan had identified as being weak. The river swiftly changed its course and the floodwaters wreaked havoc.
To compound matters, army relief columns standing by to help could also have been deployed at least six days before August 26th, when the flood situation was steadily deteriorating and water was inundating almost 1,600 villages in 15 northern and central Bihar districts.
"Army personnel were waiting in Patna for the government's deployment order, during which time lives were lost and extensive damage caused," a senior army officer said.
Lt-Gen H.S. Panag, who is co-ordinating the relief work, said that given the numbers affected and the volume of water involved the floods were "the biggest national calamity in recent times".
State chief minister Nitish Kumar said that Bihar's humanitarian crisis would remain serious for several weeks. "The possibility of water receding is minimal until next month," he explained.
Meanwhile, relief operations have proved woefully scarce across the region and desperate flood victims have attacked government vehicles carrying relief supplies. Grain warehouses have also been besieged by people searching for food and water for themselves and their families in the worst-affected Madhepur district, which is about 100 miles north-east of Patna.
Aid workers have warned that hundreds of thousands of flood victims in makeshift camps in Bihar and in Nepal face an epidemic if help fails to reach them quickly.
"After two to four days, because of the stagnant water, more people will get sick," government health worker Jai Krishna Sah warned. He was speaking from inside a crowded relief camp in the Saharsa district, 90 miles east of Patna.
A number of makeshift relief camps located along rail tracks and on high ground are already reporting cases of diarrhoea and other crippling illnesses as a consequence of many of the wells being inundated by floodwater containing sewage and animal carcases.
"The important thing now is for there to be some camp management, where the people have access to latrines, clean drinking water and some basic healthcare," said Malini Morzaria, of the European Commission's humanitarian aid organisation.
According to government figures, some 467,000 marooned people have been evacuated and more than 150,000 are sheltering in 172 relief camps. Officials estimate that 400,000 people still need to be rescued.
Heavy rains and rising floodwaters have also affected more than one million people in India's north-eastern Assam state.
Rising water levels disrupted rail and road networks and forced animals on to higher ground in the Kaziranga National Park after the Brahmaputra river burst its banks. The reserve is home to over half the world's population of single-horned rhinos.