The World Food Programme (WFP) of the UN said many communities hit by the floods still lack basic food and livelihoods support even three months into the devastating floods.

"Until the boro (winter rice) harvest next May, the overall food security in Bangladesh will continue to remain uncertain," a WFP statement said.

The WFP yesterday renewed its appeal for international assistance for Bangladesh.

The new appeal came as Disaster and Emergency Response (DER) Group of the Bangladesh Local Consultative Group (LCG) released a post-flood need assessment report, saying that three months after the July floods, many affected communities were still waiting for basic food and livelihoods support to arrive.

"The report confirms our initial fears about millions requiring basic food and livelihoods support for many months to come," the statement quoted Douglas Casson Coutts, WFP representative in Bangladesh, as saying.

"With the onset of Monga these needs have been greatly exacerbated. It is important for the international community to reassess their level of commitment to this emergency and do the needful before it is too late," he said.

The WFP launched $74 million operations on August 12 to feed five million flood-hit people for a year. A separate urgent UN appeal sought to raise $210 million for food aid. The WFP officials said the donor response has not been encouraging, either.

Bangladesh produced more than 26 million tonnes of foodgrains last year, but poverty due to rising unemployment cut purchasing capacity, officials of the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics said

The floods, the most severe in a decade, left more than 760 dead, damaged an estimated four million homes and destroyed over a million hectares of crops, it added.

The report further said while the immediate relief response was fair, the overall response is still not enough to meet the medium- and long-term recovery needs in any sector.

It stressed Bangladesh needs to improve disaster response and preparedness at local level through more timely response measures, more reliable emergency funding mechanisms, and better information management and contingency planning.

Food availability at the national level is not as critical as food accessibility at the local level, added the report.

Food shortages and increased levels of malnutrition among poor flood-affected households have already been observed and the current lean season will further increase the hardship caused by the floods.

Until the harvest of foodgrains in May 2006, the overall food security situation in Bangladesh will continue to remain uncertain, said the DER report.

Eight multi-agency teams, comprising about 80 field staff from 17 different agencies of the DER Group, were tasked to assess the 27 worst- affected districts across the country. The WFP co-ordinated the entire assessment report.