At least 19 people died this week in floods and landslides caused by annual monsoon rains in South Asia, authorities in several countries in the region said.
In Nepal, heavy rains last weekend left 14 dead and around 20 missing, authorities said on Friday, indicating that search operations are underway.
“Search and rescue teams are still on the ground,” Dhruba Bahadur Khadka, spokesman for the national disaster management authority, said on Friday.
A neighboring country to Nepal, India was also hit this week by heavy rains.
In the state of Aranuchal Pradesh (northeast), 4 people died in floods and landslides, local authorities announced on Thursday, and one person perished drowned in the neighboring state of Assam, where nearly 14,000 people had been preventively displaced.
Bangladesh is also on high alert after the country’s weather forecasters warned of flooding in the country’s northern districts. In Kurigram, 20,000 homes have already been affected by flooding, according to local authorities.
“The main rivers in the region are swelling,” Kurigram district official Mohammad Rezaul Karin told AFP. “The situation could get worse at any time.”
In South Asia, the monsoon rains from June to September account for between 70 to 80% of the region’s annual precipitation.
Every year they cause death and destruction, but the number of deadly floods and landslides has increased in recent years. Experts believe that climate change and increasing road construction may be the cause.
Last year, floods caused by monsoon rains submerged a third of Pakistan, damaging two million homes and killing more than 1,700 people. In the same year, Bangladesh experienced record flooding in which more than 100 people died.