CARE warns of health crisis in aftermath of South Asian Floods

DHAKA, Bangladesh (August 21, 2007) - CARE warned today of a new humanitarian crisis in the aftermath of flooding across South Asia, unless action is taken immediately against waterborne diseases.  Health authorities in Bangladesh are reporting between 900 and 1,000 new cases of acute diarrhea per day.  Roughly a third of the new cases are children.  Bangladesh has reported more than 15,000 cases of infections and another 15,000 cases of acute respiratory disease since the floods started.  As the weather turns colder, respiratory illness will become an increasing threat, especially to children left without shelter because of the floods.  In Pakistan, Nepal and India, the approaching winter months make shelter a more urgent priority before the winter snows arrive.

Click photo to view an enlarged version (CARE/William Dowell)
Some houses in Bangladesh are still underwater (CARE/William Dowell)
A further concern, especially in Bangladesh, is food.  Prices were already inflationary before the floods hit.  The loss of crops is likely to push prices even higher, and the pressure will increase even more when Ramadan starts in September. Traditionally prices rise during Ramadan, even in the best of times. The price squeeze added to the financial loss from the floods is driving many people to borrow from money lenders at exorbitant rates of interest, and plunging them even more deeply into poverty. As a result, many people who had been farming in flood zones are now moving into the cities out of desperation.  This is expected to have a socially and politically destabilizing effect on the entire country.

Click photo to view an enlarged version (CARE/Carsten Voelz)
CARE staff loading relief items in Bihar, India (CARE/Carsten Voelz)
The ongoing flood crisis – considered the worst in recent memory – was triggered by unusually severe monsoon rains, affecting an estimated 48 million people in Nepal, India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and killing nearly 3,000 at last count.  Rains continue in some areas, breaking riverbanks and triggering landslides and exhausting the coping mechanisms usually employed in this disaster-prone region. Without increased support, the post-flood situation could turn into a greater humanitarian emergency for the many poor who live on the most vulnerable land.

Click photo to view an enlarged version (CARE/Carsten Voelz)
CARE staff handing out medicine in Uttar Pradesh. One of CARE's staff doctors treats more than 500 to 600 patients a day here (CARE/Carsten Voelz)
India alone has reported nearly 2,000 dead, and more than 35 million people affected.  In Pakistan, two months after floods following cyclone Yemyin, hundreds of thousands of people are still without shelter, adequate food or medical attention. In Bangladesh, health authorities report that casualties from waterborne diseases, inadequate shelter and malnutrition are increasing daily. Nearly 60,000 people have suffered from acute diarrhea and dysentery since the floods started, and thousands of others are suffering from skin diseases and acute respiratory infections. Rising prices have made medicine too costly for many poor people.  Even more pressing is the need to feed people. "If we do not respond to the need for food," says Suman SMA Islam, CARE’s humanitarian coordinator in Bangladesh, "the crisis will worsen."

CARE is providing relief in all four affected countries in the form of food, safe drinking water, hygiene kits, mobile medical teams to prevent and treat waterborne diseases, shelter materials, fast-growing seeds for rapid harvests, and cash for work – focusing on the repair of damaged infrastructure – in order to help people cope.  But the amount of help that humanitarian organizations can provide is directly dependent on funding, which has been slow to materialize compared to earlier emergencies of this magnitude.

Media Contacts:

Atlanta: Rick Perera, CARE USA, rperera@care.org, (404) 979-9453, (404) 457-4649

Join the CARE community     Follow:   Share:
Connect & share on our blog >>

To donate today, please call us. Within the United States: 1-800-521-CARE or 1-800-521-2273 (24 hours)

Outside the United States: +1-404-681-2552 (M-F, 8:30 a.m.-6:00 p.m. ET)

CARE is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization (EIN/tax ID number: 13-168-5039).


Join The CARE Community