The official figure of death toll amid floods in the last month in affected areas in Bangladesh rose to 628, as water-borne diseases are spreading at an alarming rate though the flood water continued to recede.

According to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Center, the overall flood situation of the country continued to improve as the Brahmaputra-Jamuna and the Ganges-Padma observed further fall at almost all points till Tuesday, but the rivers in the Meghna and the southeastern Hill basins recorded rise and fall.

The receding of flood water was accompanied by serious land erosion and outbreaks of diarrhea in the affected areas.

Over 7,000 people among some 20 million flood-hit people were attacked by diarrhea on Tuesday only. Among the 39 fresh flood-related deaths reported from the affected areas across the country on Tuesday, nine died of diarrhea, besides other incidents including drowning, snakebite and electrocution.

The killer disease spread fast in affected areas including the capital Dhaka, and the flood-hit people are also suffering from other diseases like fever, jaundice, pneumonia, eye infection, and contagious skin disease as their residences are soaked in filthy sewerage water.

With reports of inadequate supply of relief items including baby food, safe drinking water and oral saline from different flood-affected areas against the great want of the people, the World Food Program is planning to launch a emergency operation for the flood-hit people in the third week of August to cover some five million people, and coordinate the international responses to the relief appeals by the United Nations and non-government organizations of the country.

Meanwhile, the government plans to feed some 20 million people on rations till December, 2004 as they have been hardest hit in the devastating floods that washed away crops and wrecked infrastructures across the country.

According to Daily Star on Wednesday, the Food and Disaster Management Minister Chowdhury Kamal Ibne Yusuf Tuesday was quoted as saying the poor and distressed people would be supplied food under the Vulnerable Group Feeding (VGF) program supported by domestic source until the next harvest.

He promised there will not be any famine or death due to starvation, and the government will extend the VGF program if necessary.

He said the government would also seek help from donors and international agencies for post-flood rehabilitation after completion of the assessment with the floodwater receding.

The government has so far allocated 44,728 tons of rice, 42.5 million Taka (some US$708,300 ) in cash as gratuitous relief, and 5.9 million Taka (US$98,300 )as house-building grant for the flood-affected people in 20 districts.

(Xinhua News Agency August 4, 2004)