World: East Pakistan: The Politics of Catastrophe

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There was, at least, one bit of luck in the situation. The cyclone of 1876 was followed by an outbreak of cholera that killed 50,000. So far, miraculously, East Pakistan's water supplies seem remarkably free of contamination, and there has been no sign of the feared flare-up of cholera, which is endemic in the area. Health officials speculated that, after decades of living in the Ganges Delta, the Bengalis must be pretty much inured to any calamity—bacteriological, meteorological, or political.