As monsoon rains continue to pound Sri Lanka, flooding has displaced over one million people in many parts of the country, officials say, Press TV reported.
The Disaster Management Center (DMC) said on Sunday that flooding in north-central and north-eastern parts, the worst hit areas, have affected town centers, roads and agricultural land, dpa reported.
Those areas had already been inundated by last month's monsoon rains and floods.
Rising flood waters have threatened to devastate the country's rice crop. Some 90 percent of the rice paddies could be affected, said Sri Lanka's Agricultural Minister Mahinda Yapa Abeywardene.
Officials based in the area have put the death toll at more than 13 people, while the DMC said it has so far received confirmation of only eight deaths and two missing.
Many areas were inaccessible on the sixth consecutive day of heavy rains and the exact situation and the full extent of the damage were not yet known, the DMC said.
Over 250,000 displaced people are in government camps while others had been taken in by friends and relatives or found refuge in other buildings, including temples.
The latest flooding comes after the UN issued an appeal for $51 million in emergency aid to help people affected by January's floods, which killed more than 43 people and displaced 1.1 million Sri Lankans.
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