The worst monsoon floods in a decade have killed more than 800 people and displaced over a million across India, Nepal and Bangladesh. Aid workers warn of severe food shortages and water-borne diseases as rains continue to lash the affected areas. Army soldiers and disaster management workers in the three countries have launched mammoth rescue efforts to evacuate and provide food and shelter to people affected by the floods.
In Bangladesh, at least 115 people have died and more than 5.7 million are affected as floods submerge more than a third of the low-lying and densely populated country. Reaz Ahmed, the director general of Bangladesh's Disaster Management Department, told Reuters: "With the flood waters receding, there is a possibility of an epidemic. We fear the outbreak of water-borne diseases if clean water is not ensured soon."
With some rivers running above danger levels, 225 bridges have been damaged in Bangladesh, disrupting food and medicine supplies to people displaced from their homes, said aid workers.
A child reacts to the camera while sitting on his father back as they make their way through a flooded area in Bogra, Bangladesh, on 20 August 2017Mohammad Ponir Hossain/ReutersA woman collects drinking water from a flooded pump in Gaibandha, Bangladesh, on 19 August 2017Mohammad Ponir Hossain/ReutersPeople carry their belongings through water in a flood-affected area in Kurigram, northern Bangladesh, on 14 August 2017AFP
In the Indian state of Assam bordering Bangladesh, at least 180 people have been killed in the past few weeks. Torrential rains have also hit the northeastern states of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur, killing at least 30 people.
Flood waters of the Brahmaputra river submerged the Kaziranga wildlife sanctuary in Assam. The floods have since killed more than 350 animals, including 24 endangered one-horned rhinoceros, five elephants and a tiger. "We are facing a wildlife disaster," Assam Forest Minister Pramila Rani Brahma told Reuters.
Indian one-horned rhinoceroses wade through flood waters in a submerged area of the Pobitora wildlife sanctuary in India's northeastern Assam state, on 17 August 2017Biju Boro/AFPA man casts his fishing net in the flood waters next to his partially submerged hut in Morigaon district in the northeastern state of Assam, on 17 August 2017Anuwar Hazarika/ReutersOfficials of the Jhargaon Public Health Centre travel on a boat on their way to hold a medical camp in the flood affected Morigaon district, in India's northeastern Assam state, on 18 August 2017Biju Boro/AFPA medic distributes medicine to children in the flood affected Sagolikota area of Morigaon district, in India's northeastern Assam state, on 18 August 2017Biju Boro/AFPA boy paddles a makeshift raft as he transports a woman and a cooking gas cylinder through the flood waters in Morigaon district in the northeastern state of Assam, on 18 August 2017Anuwar Hazarika/ReutersA boy uses a banana raft to transport his books in Jakhalabandha area in Nagaon district, in the northeastern Indian state of Assam, on 21 August 2017Anuwar Hazarika/ReutersA woman collects medicines at a health relief camp following floods at a village in Nagaon district, in the northeastern state of Assam, on 16 August 2017Anuwar Hazarika/ReutersPeople use a makeshift raft to transport goats as they wade through a flooded road in Jakhalabandha area in Nagaon district, in the Indian state of Assam on 13 August 2017Anuwar Hazarika/ReutersPeople travel on a boat as cattle are kept on the roadside in the flood affected Morigoan district, in India's northeastern state of Assam, on 15 August 2017Biju Boro/AFPA woman walks along a submerged railway track in the flood-affected Jakhalabandha area in Koliabor, some 186km from Guwahati, the capital city of India's northeastern state of Assam on 14 August 2017Biju Boro/AFPPeople row a boat past partially submerged houses in a flood-affected village in Morigaon district in Assam, on 14 July 2017Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters
In the eastern state of Bihar, at least 253 people lost their lives where incessant rains washed away crops, destroyed roads and disrupted power supplies. A senior official in Bihar's disaster management department, Anirudh Kumar, said nearly half a million people have been provided with shelter.
People use rope and empty barrels to cross a washed away portion of a bridge at Palsa village in Purnia district in Bihar state, on 18 August 2017Diptendu Dutta/AFP
In Nepal, 141 people were confirmed dead, while thousands of survivors returned to their semi-destroyed homes. "Their homes are in a state of total destruction," said Francis Markus from International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
A flood victim washes herself in floodwaters in Saptari District, Nepal, on 14 August 2017Navesh Chitrakar/ReutersA woman walks past cattle grazing on higher ground in a flood affected area in Saptari District, Nepal, on 14 August 2017Navesh Chitrakar/ReutersNepali people make their way through flood waters in Tilathi Village in Saptari District, some 450km southeast of the capital Kathmandu, on 15 August 2017Prakash Mathema/AFPResidents watch water rage through a flooded area in the Birgunj Parsa district, some 200km south of Kathmandu, Nepal, on 13 August 2017Manish Paudel/AFPA Nepali boy covered in mud looks on in his village on the outskirts of Biratnagar after the area was hit by flood, some 240 km from Kathmandu, on 16 August 2017Prakash Mathema/AFP
Seasonal monsoon rains, a lifeline for farmers across South Asia, typically cause loss of life and property every year between July and September, but officials say this year's flooding is the worst in several years.
