Two thirds of Bangladesh has been inundated by the worst monsoon floods in 15 years and water and sewerage systems in Dhaka have broken down completely, officials said yesterday.

Severe flooding across Bangladesh and parts of India and Nepal has killed almost 570 people in the past month, forced millions from their homes and sparked an outbreak of diarrhoea and other waterborne diseases.

?Diarrhoea is spreading in most flooded areas and several hundred medical teams are fighting to prevent the spread of disease?, a senior health official told Reuters in Dhaka. At least 100 000 Bangladeshis are suffering from diarrhoea.

Officials in eastern India and Bangladesh warn of more flooding, forecasting more rainfall over the next few days. In Dhaka, the diplomatic enclave and commercial centre were under waist-deep water yesterday. Sewerage pipes in the city have burst, contaminating the water supply.

?We have stopped using water for a week from the taps due to the bad smell?, said Rawshan Ara, a 35-year-old Dhaka housewife.

<B>No food or drinking water</B>

The floods in Bangladesh have halted the impoverished country?s oil and gas operations and closed thousands of garment factories, hitting a key export sector worth $5 billion a year.

Tens of thousands of homes, mainly made of bamboo and straw, have been washed away in the three nations and rescue and relief services are stretched to breaking point. Millions of people have no food or drinking water.

In the northeastern Indian state of Assam, where roads and rail links have been cut for weeks, hundreds of soldiers handed out food, water, medicine and clothing by boat to some of the estimated 12 million people left homeless.

The state weather office said levels in most rivers had fallen, except for the mighty Brahmaputra, which flows on into Bangladesh.