CALCUTTA, India Rivers rose again in parts of India's West Bengal State, where the region's worst floods in 22 years have left 650 dead and 225 missing since last week, officials said on Saturday.
"In some areas the water level is still rising, but it is rising very slowly now," a government official in the North 24 Paraganas district told Reuters by telephone.
Weather department officials said rivers were expected to recede after a day because high tides in coastal districts would abate on Sunday.
Torrential monsoon rains and heavy flows in the Ganges and 56 other rivers sweeping into neighboring Bangladesh from India, has affected more than 17 million people, destroyed paddy fields and damaged roads and railway tracks in the state.
In Bangladesh, floods have killed more than 50 people, left nearly 150 missing, made over a million homeless and badly disrupted communication links.
Indian officials said the situation improved further in the worst-affected regions of the state, but some areas still remained cut off, and millions of people were vulnerable to attacks of water-borne diseases.
(Reuter)