Thousands in Bangladesh awaiting homes

Cyclone Aila slammed into parts of coastal Bangladesh and eastern India on May 25, killing more than 200 people and displacing millions. In Bangladesh alone, 190 people were killed and 750,000 left homeless.

A month after the cyclone hit, 350,000 victims are still living in temporary shelter on embankments, roadsides, school buildings and cyclone shelters, Oxfam said.

They were without adequate water, sanitation or livelihoods, it said, adding disease is becoming a serious problem.

"People urgently need shelter, safe water and sanitation facilities and restoration of livelihoods," said Oxfam country director in Bangladesh, Heather Blackwell, who had just returned from the severely affected areas.

"Government, humanitarian organizations, (the) U.N. and donors should come together to assist large numbers of displaced people who still need immediate support," she added.

An average of over 1,000 people are being admitted daily to take diarrhoeal treatment in the most affected districts, Oxfam said.

In the last few years disaster-prone Bangladesh, one of the world's most densely populated and poorest countries, has seen an increase in intensity and frequency of climate-related problems.

A cyclone in 1991 killed about 140,000 people and another in late 2007 killed over 3,300.

The United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted Bangladesh could lose nearly one-fifth of its land by 2050 because of rising sea levels due to global warming.

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