Jul 26, 2007, 16:59 GMT
Kathmandu/New York - At least five people were killed and hundreds of thousands of people affected as the flood situation worsened across southern Nepal, local media reports said Thursday.
More areas in the plains of western Nepal were inundated Wednesday with incessant monsoon rains showing no signs of stopping.
United Nations relief agencies said 42 of the country's 75 districts are threatened by food deficits because of a combination of prolonged drought, hailstorms and floodings in agricultural regions in 2005 and 2006.
As a result, the country is short of an estimated 225,000 metric tons of food grain this year compared with a deficit of just 23,000 tons in 2006, said the World Food Programme (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
'This is particularly troubling during this highly sensitive post- conflict period and WFP will immediately address this concern by targeting 1.2 million people through a new 49-million-dollar peace and recovery programme and urge donors to support our effort,' said Richard Ragan, the WFP representative in Nepal.
The UN said Nepal is prone to natural disasters, which can cause food shortages.
Media reports said at least four people had died in Banke, Bajhang and Dang districts, about 350 kilometres west of the Nepalese capital, while one death was reported in eastern Nepal.
Nepali language daily Kantipur reported the regional town of Nepalgunj, about 350 kilometres west of Kathmandu, was under two feet of water and thousands of people in the town were affected.
The flood situation in south central Nepal worsened Wednesday with more rain falling over the region. The region had been under severe flooding for the past five days.
Reports from the commercial town of Birgunj, about 80 kilometres south of the Nepalese capital Kathmandu, said at least 300 houses were under water, while rising waters had forced hundreds of people to seek shelter in Mahottari district.
Nepalese officials said many of the major rivers in south-central Nepal and western Nepal were flowing above the danger level and some had burst their banks inundating farmland and towns and affecting transport in several districts.
Meanwhile, the country's meteorological department said the monsoon trough extending from Bay of Bengal to northern India was responsible for heightened rainfall activities.
The department said many places across the Himalayan nation had received rainfall in excess of 300 millimetres in the past week with some areas recording up to 600 millimetres.
It said more rains were expected at least till Saturday.
The latest deaths bring the total number of people killed in flooding and landslides in monsoon season to at least 35.
Earlier this month 30 people died when they were swept away by landslides in western Nepal.
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