An anticipated increased incidence of climate-related extreme rainfall events in the Great Lakes region may raise the public health risk for the 40 million people who depend on the lakes for their drinking water, according to a new study.

Heavy rains that caused flooding and unsafe sanitary conditions in eastern India had led to cholera outbreak that has killed up to 70 people.

Bangladesh is struggling to contain outbreaks of water-borne disease as waters recede following major flooding and monsoon rains. Health spokesman Aisha Akhter says at least 18,300 people suffering from diarrhoea have been admitted to hospitals across the country in the past eight days because of a lack of clean drinking water.

U.N. agencies say millions of people displaced by flooding in South Asia face a looming health crisis unless they receive emergency aid within days.

The death toll rose Friday to at least 186 as heavy monsoon rains triggered floods across a wide swath of northern India and Bangladesh, destroying crops, submerging roads and displacing 19 million people, officials said.