On the Indian Sub-continent, severe floods following monsoon rains have left thousands of people homeless and more than five hundred are reported dead. Reuters reports the worst floods for 20 years in some areas of Pakistan, Kashmir, India, and Bangladesh.

SYNOPSIS: In the swollen rivers of north Bangladesh, sailing boats become rescue craft to carry homeless flood victims to dryer and safer areas. Life here is never easy. Even in more normal times, those who rely on the monsoon to bring rain to water the crops may not get enough. But too much rain is devastating.

Make-shift rafts and other primitive vessels become the only practical means of transport through floodwaters which have polluted existing water supplies. Cattle that survived have no grazing, and must be fed with scarce grain supplies. Flash floods are the greatest danger, and throughout Bangladesh, fifty people are reported dead, and three hundred thousand affected. Relief supplies were air-lifted to the hardest-hit areas, and health authorities are doing what they can to prevent epidemics. But, an official statement from Dacca on Wednesday (23 August) said the level of the three rivers which have caused the flooding have begun to fail.