By RIA Novosti
Jakarta : At least 153 people have been killed and dozens are missing in heavy floods in Papua New Guinea, regional media reported Wednesday.
The death toll in the South Pacific nation near Indonesia is expected to rise further as the county is currently suffering from acute shortage of food and drinking water after a week of heavy floods and torrential rains caused by a tropical cyclone.
Authorities have declared a state of emergency in the worst affected eastern provinces, where hundreds of homes have been flooded, and roads and bridges damaged. Thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes.
About 80 percent of people in Papua New Guinea live in rural areas, and many are dependent on subsistence agriculture.
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