A notable spell of heavy rainfall associated with the Indian summer monsoon triggered flooding and landslides across several south Asian countries, including Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and subHimalayan India from 12-15 July, said Impact Forecasting, a catastrophe model development centre within the Aon group.
In its Weekly Cat Report, Impact Forecasting said that the floods caused economic losses that are expected to reach well into millions of dollars; especially costs to agriculture and infrastructure.
The rains caused several major rivers to flow above flood stage. Thousands of homes were damaged or destroyed, large tracts of agricultural land were inundated, road infrastructure damaged and no fewer than 281 people were left dead or missing.
Historically, flooding, and particularly monsoon floods, have been the primary driver of economic loss in the South Asian region.