TEHRAN River levels remained dangerously high Tuesday following flash floods that have claimed at least 173 lives and left millions homeless in eastern India and the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan.
"We are trying very hard to cope with the situation ... putting all our strained resources to the best possible use," said Flood Control Minister Promode Gogoi in the worst-hit far-eastern State of Assam.
Gogoi told AFP that a "lack of resources" was hampering relief and rescue work in Assam, where the death toll had reached 80 people half of them victims of water borne disease.
The state government has opened 300 relief camps, while hundreds of makeshift camps have been set up by the estimated 2.5 million Assamese villagers left homeless by the floods.
The flooding, triggered by heavy rains that caused the mighty Brahmaputra River and its tributaries to burst their banks, has killed 26 people in the eastern State of Bihar, 10 in neighboring West Bengal and seven in Arunachal Pradesh.
Flash floods and landslides in the past four days have also claimed more than 50 lives and left hundreds homeless in Bhutan, a government minister said Tuesday.