Our Comilla Correspondent reports: Diarrhoea and other water borne diseases are spreading as cries for food and drinking water deepened in flood affected areas and flood shelters.

Till Thursday, diarrhoea claimed 12 lives and attacked 3182 people in the four affected upazilas of Muradnagar, Brahmanpara, Homna and Daudkandi.

About 292 diarrhoea patients were brought to local health centres in the last 24 hours, officials at the Civil Surgeon's office told this correspondent Thursday afternoon.

But they could not specify whether any of the patients were from any flood shelter.

They said 90 medical teams are working in the affected areas. During a visit to some flood shelters, many of the inmates said they are virtually starving and are afraid of intestinal diseases due to drinking water crisis.

There is hardly any dry place in the four upazilas.

A total of 2,02,586 families have been sheltered in 129 flood shelters in the four upazilas where 96 unions have been flooded. Around 40 flood sheltered opened at primary schools are inundated, administration officials said.

Our Gaibandha Correspondent reports: Diarrhoea and other water borne intestinal diseases claimed eight lives and attacked over 14,00 in the last three days in the flood affected five upazilas of the district.

The Civil Surgeon's office however admitted two deaths from diarrhoea.

One Sirajul Islam, 50, of Dhanghara in Gaibandha Sadar drowned in floodwater on Monday.

Sources at the Civil Surgeon's office said 106 medical teams are working in the flood affected areas.

This correspondent visited some remote areas of Fulchari upazila on Tuesday. Local people said they did not see any government medical team in the last few days. An army medical team is working there, they said.

The Gaibandha district administration said they asked for Tk 10 lakh, 3000 tonnes of rice, 5000 bundles of CI sheets as relief but got only 1000 tonnes of rice, Tk ten lakh grant and Tk two lakh house building grant.

The Water Development Board Executive Engineer told this correspondent that flood damaged over 90 kilometres of embankments in the district and Tk 12 crore would be needed for their renovation.

The Fulchari upazila headquarter is now isolated from rest of the district as over one kilometre stretch of a road has been virtually demolished by the surging water from the Jamuna river.

The local people held a rally and brought out a procession at Fulchari upazila headquarter on Tuesday demanding re-shifting of the upazila headquarters to its original place from Kanchibari, 20 kilometres away.

The Fulchari UNO shifted his office to Kanchipara on July 15 as it was threatened with erosion. 2313 attacked from diarrhoea in B'baria

Our Brahmanbaria Correspon-dent reports: At least 2313 people have been attacked by diarrhoea in eight flood affected upazilas in the district, 444 of them in he last 24 hours, Rana Nurus Sams, RMO of Brahmanbaria Sadar Hospital said yesterday.

Diarrhoea has also been reported from some flood shelters, he said.

But few of them are coming to hospitals because health workers are visiting the areas and advising the affected people, he said. "Diarrhoea can be treated with a Tk 9 saline. Why should they come to hospital spending Tk 70 to 100?", he said.

Eating 'Khichuri' (a food prepared with water, pulse and rice) for consecutive days is one of the causes of diarrhoea, said Dr Bazlur Rahman.