The nations of South Asia, home to more than 1.3 billion people, have been particularly affected by the rains, causing some of the worst flooding in the region in years, as extreme weather events are becoming more frequent. due to the climate crisis.
In India, at least 48 people have been killed since June 14 after heavy rains hit the northeastern state of Assam, according to its disaster management authority, causing landslides and landslides. of the rivers inflected. More than 5.5 million people have been affected in the state alone, the authority added.
Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma visited one of the 1,687 relief camps on Tuesday, which houses more than 260,000 displaced people in the state.
“Our government will soon launch a portal for affected people to record their livestock losses and other damage caused by flood waters,” he wrote on Twitter. “A flood relief package will also be announced soon.”
In the nearby state of Meghalaya, at least 25 people have been killed since June 9, with 11 missing and 22 more injured, according to state officials.
The video broadcast on local television showed people from the affected cities wading to the waist in muddy waters and streets turned into rivers, with vehicles submerged under water.
In neighboring Bangladesh, flood-related incidents, including electrocution and landslides, have killed at least 22 people, officials said.
As many as 4 million people, including 1.6 million children, have been stranded by flash floods, according to UNICEF.
“Children need safe drinking water right now. Preventing deadly water-borne diseases is one of several critical concerns,” Sheldon Yett, a UNICEF representative in Bangladesh, said in a statement on Monday.
The downpour has caused catastrophic flooding in the northeastern region of Sylhet, local authorities said.
“Floods are the worst in 122 years in the Sylhet region,” Atiqul Haque, director general of the Bangladesh Disaster Management Department, told Reuters on Monday.
Sanitary facilities were flooded in Sylhet, while children were at greater risk of drowning, according to UNICEF.
More than 36,000 children have sought refuge in overcrowded shelters, along with their families, UNICEF said.
Schools have been forced to close and exams have been canceled, further affecting their education after months of closures due to the coronavirus pandemic, he added.
Extreme weather events in South Asia are becoming more frequent due to the climate crisis, with temperatures in parts of India and Pakistan reaching record levels during a heat wave in April and May. Scientists said the climate crisis had made the possibility of a record heat wave hitting India and Pakistan “100 times more likely”. intense and frequent “, and that” it will increase the annual and summer monsoon precipitation “.
CNN’s Esha Mitra contributed to the report.