Hasna Moudud, green activist and former chairman of the special parliamentary committee in Bangladesh on environment and coastal areas, is founder-adviser of GLOBE International, a forum that brings legislators, scientists and business leaders together for dialogues on environmental issues. She talks to Narayani Ganesh of the need to focus on the gender aspect of climate change: What is the gender aspect of climate change?

The Healthcare and Nutrition Ministry has made arrangements to prevent possible outbreaks of epidemics after floods subside in the affected areas under the direction of Minister Nimal Siripala de Silva, a Ministry spokesman said. He said the Ministry will launch a joint programme in co-ordination with all Provincial Health Officers in the flood affected areas. Usually after floods, there is an outbreak of various diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, viral flu, fever, diarrhoea in the affected areas.

At least 16 people were killed and about 200,000 were displaced in Sri Lanka due to torrential rains that has been lashing the country since last week. The National Disaster Management Centre said that the death toll had gone up to 16 with the deaths of four people in the same family including an infant and an 11-year-old girl due to a landslide. The Meteorology Department warned the public of continuing rainfall in the next few days with the start of the southwestern monsoon. Heavy rains struck Colombo, Gampaha and Kalutara, Galle, Matara and Ratnapura districts.

Floods triggered by torrential rain have killed at least nine and forced thousands of people from their homes in Sri Lanka, with some taking shelter in schools and temples, officials said on Monday. Flooding, often fuelled by monsoon rains, and ensuing mass displacement are common in Sri Lanka. "Nine people have been killed and a total of 83,433 people have been affected due to the heavy rains," said Keerthi Ekanayake, national coordinator at the National Disaster Management Centre.

The living condition of the people of Paschim Ratiadaha part-II village under Bisondoi gaon panchayat in the far western part of the Indo-Bangladesh border in Golokganj LAC of Dhuburi district are in a deplorable state as the villagers are yet to see the development even after six decades of India's Independence. The heavy-erosion of the river Gangadhar has made more than 300 families of Ratiadaaha part-II village homeless and has devastated their cultivable lands. As a result, the homeless families have to take shelter on roads and dykes.

Three lakh cubic meters of silt removed from Mutha Even if it rains heavily this year, the Pune Municipal Corporation has claimed that it was ready to tackle any flood situation. The PMC's confidence stems from the removal of three lakh cubic meter of silt from Mutha river

Tropical Storm Arthur, the first of the year in the Atlantic, weakened to a depression over Mexico on Sunday but still dumped torrential rain across the south of the country that threatened to create floods. Arthur, which had been forecast to move early Sunday into the Gulf of Mexico where there are many oil installations, was still overland and was seen moving farther inland in coming hours and then losing punch. Still, Arthur's wicked winds forced the closure of two of Mexico's three main oil exporting ports in the Gulf of Mexico because of rough seas.

Up to 1.3 million people in China's Sichuan Province have been ordered to evacuate to higher grounds for fear of a major "quake lake' burst as a result of flooding and strong aftershocks. Tan Li, Party Secretary of Mianyang City and chief of Mianyang City Quake Control and Relief Headquarters, on Friday issued an order that people living downstream from Tangjiashan, a swelling quake-induced lake, must evacuate. The mass evacuation, dubbed a "drill' by local government officials, is said to make way for a possible flood-discharging operation set for the weekend.