U.N. plea as floods spread

August 09, 2007

The United Nations is calling on governments to do more to prevent future crises caused by natural disasters. The plea came as fresh floods occurred in South and East Asia. More people have died in India and the flooding is now officially the worst for many decades. Residents in Bangladesh are among the worst affected but there's also severe flooding in India, Vietnam and the Philippines. Tens of millions of people are homeless and health authorities are faced with thousands of cases of diarrhoea and other water-borne illnesses.