Rescuers yesterday found 12 more bodies buried under mud and debris to bring the death toll from landslides and flooding in Nepal to 97, sparking fears of a cholera outbreak.
Torrential rain last week triggered multiple landslides and flooding, stranding thousands of villagers and leaving a trail of death and destruction in the Himalayan nation.
The rains have damaged roads across the country’s western plains bordering India, forcing officials to use helicopters to rescue stranded people and deliver emergency supplies.
The new death toll was given by Jhankanath Dhakal, chief of Nepal’s National Emergency Operation Centre.
As the weather cleared Sunday after three days of incessant rain, the government deployed 2,000 rescue workers and four helicopters to help evacuate thousands of people from badly-hit western districts, Dhakal said.
In Bardiya, officials scrambled to provide clean drinking water kits to distraught villagers, as fears grew of a cholera outbreak from the submerged bodies of humans and livestock.
Cholera is a potentially deadly disease spread by eating or drinking food or water contaminated by human faeces.
“We are alert to the risks of water-borne diseases after flooding. A medical team is going from shelter to shelter... distributing water-purifying drops,” Achyut Lamichhane, Bardiya’s chief health official, told AFP by phone.
As water levels slowly recede, rescuers have started moving people into temporary shelters.
But large areas remain submerged, preventing helicopters from landing to let workers search for those still missing, said national disaster management chief Yadav Prasad Koirala.