Food-affected villagers head to safe ground in Araria district, Bihar (Photo: the guardian)

220 people died and more than 1.5 million were evacuated during recent floods in India, Nepal, and Bangladesh. In Nepal, tens of thousands of houses in low areas in in the south were submerged and one fifth of the population was affected by floods. Speaking to the Parliament on Tuesday, Nepalese Housing Minister Janardan Sharma said 111 people died and 35 went missing in the floods. Recent floods affected 30% of Bangladesh’s residential areas and killed 29 people. Head of the Bangladesh Bureau for Natural Disaster Management Reaz Ahmed said 1.5 million people were evacuated. 1,200 temporary shelters were set up and military troops were deployed to assist search and rescue work. India has been most seriously affected by flooding. A government official said floods killed 81 people in Bihar southern state, West Bengal, and Assam state. The rail line in India’s northeastern region has been cut off.

Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma on Tuesday declared a state of emergency after more than 300 people died and thousands of others went missing in recent floods. The government promised to help 3,000 people who lost their houses and set up a response center and 4 centers for rescue registration. Mr. Koroma announced a 7-day period of national mourning for flood victims. Frequent landslide and flooding in western Africa, where forests have been destroyed and planning has been weak, has endangered local populations. Sierra Leone is one of the world’s poorest countries.

On Monday, firefighters in Greece had to deal with 90 fires across the country due to hot weather and drought. Fires in Athens have not been fully controlled. Fires have caused serious damage for local infrastructure at some tourist spots like Zakynthos Island.

Jiuzhaigou, a famous tourist spot in China, was struck by a 7.0 magnitude quake early this month. 24 people died and more than 490 people were injured.  

Natural disasters around the world over the past few days have caused serious losses of human life and property setting back economic development and tourism in many countries.