Unnatural Disaster

Lifting off in his Russian MI-17 transporter helicopter from Patna in northeast India and banking low and east along the Ganges River delta, Captain S.K. Singh gets the clearest possible view of South Asia's water crisis. In front of him is a split-screen of disaster. On the left are catastrophic floods, the worst in a century according to relief workers, which have killed 1,500 people, disrupted the lives of 63 million and released a disease epidemic. A full two-thirds of Bangladesh is now under water, while 1.2 million homes have been washed away region-wide. Out the right side of the cockpit...