Floods affect 1 million in Sri Lanka, UN says

The United Nations said it was stepping up efforts to help more than one million people affected by severe monsoonal flooding in Sri Lanka.

While much of the world's attention has been focused on devastating floods in Australia, more than 300,000 people have been forced out of their homes and at least 24 have been killed in flooding and mudslides as heavy monsoon rains continued to lash Sri Lanka's northern and eastern provinces.

The government sent in the army to help those displaced, while U.N. agencies in Sri Lanka were stepping up efforts in cooperation with the government to help the over one million people affected, according to a statement.

"More than one million people have been affected by the floods," the UN children's fund spokesman Mervyn Fletcher told the BBC. "That means they have either been forced from their homes or have seen their property flooded. Access to clean water is becoming a major problem and we and other agencies are distributing purification tablets."

The authorities were reportedly hospitalizing pregnant women and young children to shield them from waterborne diseases, The Washington Post reported.

The Agricultural Ministry said at least 21 percent of Sri Lanka's staple crop, rice, had been destroyed, raising concerns over supply shocks and higher food inflation, according to Reuters.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said Thursday it would launch an appeal for emergency funds in the coming weeks.