RUSHES Flooding in Bangladesh

(26 Jul 2004) SHOTLIST

Demra
1. Various of floodwaters
2. Various of houses and buildings flooded
3. Woman in boat
4. More flooded buildings

Dhaka
5. Flooded downtown street, crowded with people and their boats

STORYLINE

Floodwaters, disease and snakebites killed 58 more people across Bangladesh, bringing the death toll to 285.

Two-third's of the country and much of the capital Dhaka was under water on Monday, officials said.

The death toll from monsoon flooding across all of South Asia has neared 950.

Dhaka rivers burst their banks, leaving 40 percent of the 10 (m) million residents under water.

Parts of the central business district and two upscale residential areas were submerged.

Workers and volunteers frantically stacked sandbags in a bid to stop water gushing through cracks in two main flood protection embankments outside the capital.

Nearly two-thirds of Bangladesh - a delta nation of 140 (m) million people - has been flooded since the start of the monsoon in late June.

The floods - the worst there since 1998 - have affected about 20 (m) million people in 45 out of the country's 64 districts.

Government relief workers and volunteers are distributing food, medicines and clothes among people stranded in their homes or sheltering on mud embankments, raised highways, school buildings or mosques.

The 58 new deaths occurred due to diarrhoea, drowning and snakebites, the government said without providing further details.

About 75,000 people have been stricken with diarrhoea since the start of the floods in June, it said.

Snakebites often cause deaths during floods because the reptiles are often forced into the open where they attack people.

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