"The results of health tests for flood victims show that many victims have diabetes hypertension and heart disease," Odete Viegas, Director of the Guido Valadares National Hospital told media on Tuesday.

Though authorities are working to deliver food and medical assistance to people displaced by the floods, illnesses carried in dirty water and triggered by people not able to conduct good hygiene practices, such as diarrhoea, were a “concern”, Viegas said. 

Dili roads, shops and houses were inundated forcing people to wade knee-deep in flooded streets after rivers broke their banks and drainage systems failed to cope with the deluge.

Social media users posted videos of muddy brown torrents pouring through streets.

Diarrheal diseases remain a major public health problem in Timor-Leste, according to World Health Organisation reports.  The diseases are responsible for approximately 380 child deaths per year.

Health officials are encouraging people affected by the floods to practice good hygiene standards, including washing hands, and to contact authorities for assistance.

Viegas said the hospital was working with civil society and emergency providers to deliver food, medicine, basic kitchen utensils and shelter to displaced people.