Rains and floods are hit­ting West Africa hard. Aid groups on the ground fear that dis­eases may soon break­out. Stand­ing water that is a meter deep in some areas could cause out­breaks of malaria and cholera.

From CNN, reporter Mark Tut­ton relays the aid groups concern.

Philippe Con­raud, Oxfam’s regional human­i­tar­ian co-coordinator in Dakar, told CNN that those liv­ing in the city’s densely pop­u­lated sub­urbs have been worst affected by the flood­ing and are most at risk from dis­eases such as cholera and malaria.

“The most wor­ry­ing thing for us is that peo­ple are leav­ing their houses and mov­ing into schools and empty build­ings, which brings san­i­ta­tion prob­lems,” he said.

“If the flood­ing con­tin­ues and noth­ing is done to improve san­i­ta­tion then we may see diseases.”

Con­raud said Oxfam plans to dis­trib­ute soap, deter­gents, mos­quito nets and cook­ing pots to dis­placed people.

The United Nations reported this week that tor­ren­tial rains have affected 600,000 peo­ple in 16 West African nations since June.

On Tues­day the town of Agadez in north­ern Niger was del­uged by rain­wa­ter run­ning down from the Air Moun­tains, destroy­ing an esti­mated 3,500 homes and leav­ing 30,000 peo­ple homeless.

Gian­carlo Pepe, field coor­di­na­tor for Doc­tors With­out Bor­ders (DWB), is based in Agadez. He told CNN that the flood­wa­ter had sub­sided but there is now a con­sid­er­able risk of malaria, cholera and measles as dis­placed peo­ple crowd into schools and other impromptu shelters.

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