World Notes BANGLADESH

To the 105 million citizens of Bangladesh, the monsoon season usually brings life, swelling the great Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers and providing water for the rice paddies. This year the rains have brought death. Since July, floods have devastated 50 of Bangladesh's 64 districts, killing more than 1,000 people and destroying or damaging 2 million homes in the country's worst flooding in 40 years.

The government estimates that 3 million tons of grain have been lost. While Bangladesh has enough stocks to prevent any immediate famine, it must make a major effort to import and distribute food to avoid widespread hunger in the months to come. That is both an opportunity and a hazard for Bangladeshi President H.M. Ershad. A successful relief program may help legitimize his military-backed regime, but a failure could doom it. Two of Ershad's predecessors were assassinated amid political turmoil exacerbated by natural disasters.