India orders probe as South Asia floods and disease strike

PATNA, India-Authorities battling devastating floods in eastern India ordered a probe on Wednesday to determine whether negligence contributed to the disaster, while more people drowned and diseases spread across South Asia.Fourteen more people drowned overnight in the flood-hit eastern Indian state of Bihar, raising the death toll there to 104, officials said.So far at least 1,000 people have died across South Asia from monsoon flooding that started in June.Anger is mounting among flood victims in Bihar, who took to the streets on Wednesday protesting against meagre food supplies and lack of safe drinking water in many areas.Aid agencies, clearly unimpressed by the speed of relief efforts and the lack of any relief work at all in some areas, have said children and women could die soon from diseases. "Conditions in these flood camps are terrible. People use the same stagnant water for bathing as well as washing their clothes and utensils," said Thomas Chandy, head of relief agency Save the Children in India. "Children are playing around in this water and inadvertently drinking it and getting sick," he said.Villagers also complained of hunger in the camps."We survived floods but now it looks we will die of hunger, diseases and dirt," said Rishideo Sada of Bihar's Saharsa district.
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