Disease stalks flood victims

By Kylie Morris BBC correspondent in Dhaka

Rehanna is worried about her baby Amena's health

Two and a half years ago, Rehanna and Aminul Islam married for love.

A year ago, they had a daughter - Amena.

They moved to Dhaka from the countryside and began a new life together.

Aminul started working as a rickshaw-wallah, scraping together 3,000 taka ($50) a month.

But this month, when they should be savouring the new lives they have built together - they are living in a squalid room with several other families, while their home is underwater.

Foetid field

Around 3,000 citizens of the capital have taken refuge in the Abdul Aziz college in Dhaka's Madartek district.

Aminul boils water first but it is so dirty it makes little difference

They get some medical aid and some food handouts - but it's not nearly enough.

Rehanna is worried about her baby's health.

"She has had diarrhoea for four days," the 18-year-old mother says, "as well as fever, and itching. The mosquitoes keep us awake at night and the room is hot and crowded."

It is the dirty water that is making Amena sick.

The family drinks from the foetid field of water that laps against the doors of the refuge.

They boil the water first, but it makes little difference.

Donations of food and rehydration salts are almost obsolete when the water they are consumed with is packed full of bacteria that cause diarrhoea.

Making do

In an effort to keep his family fed, Amanul wades through the water each day, to return to their waterlogged house.

These daily journeys are making him feverish, but he is determined to prepare a meal a day for his wife and baby, and there is nothing to cook with at the shelter.

He tells us it will be at least a month before they can return home.

Families are forced to live together in overcrowded conditions

They have very little money left. He cannot reach his rickshaw because of the high flood waters. In the meantime, they will have to make do.

Bangladesh is used to making do.

Monsoon floods come every year but this time they have come early and with a force few could have anticipated.

The greatest concern is that two months remain of this monsoon season.

Although the waters are receding now, another episode of heavy rain will return the streets to rivers.

The only people doing well are the ferrymen.

Their makeshift boats are haphazardly nailed together - the filthy waters visible between the planks.

It is an act of faith to step into one of these - but the only alternative is to wade.

And getting your feet wet is an unhealthy business.

So many people are trying to reach their work and do their chores by boat that there are watery traffic jams at some intersections.

Relief agencies estimate that the poorest who are most affected by the floods will take at least a year to recover their health and livelihoods.

For Rehanna and Aminul, they will need time and assistance to get back what they had.