Dhaka, Days of flooding are challenging authorities in South Asia as they try todeliver food and drinking water to shelters across submerged swaths of India and Bangladesh.

The high water brought on by seasonal monsoon downpours has already claimed more than a dozen lives, displaced hundreds of thousands and flooded millions of homes.

Those who remain in their homes can be seen wading through streets flooded up to their knees.

Flooding also continued to ravage India’s north-eastern Assam state where two policemen engaged in rescue operations were washed away by floodwaters.

Local officials said nearly 200,000 people were taking shelter in 700 relief camps. Water levels in all major rivers across the state were flowing above danger levels.

Last month, a pre-monsoon flash flood triggered by a rush of water from upstream in India’s north-eastern states hit Bangladesh’s northern and north-eastern regions, destroying crops and damaging homes and roads.

Bangladesh, a nation of 160 million people, is low-lying and faces threats from natural disasters such as floods and cyclones, made worse by climate change. According to the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), about 17% of people in Bangladesh would need to be relocated over the next decade or so if global warming persists at the present rate.

Source: Oman News Agency