Food drop in the floods

India grapples with the task of feeding and housing close to a million villagers displaced by huge floods in the eastern state of Bihar.

Indian flood-affected villagers run to collect relief material dropped by a relief helicopter from the Indian Air Force in Madhepura district in India's north-eastern state of Bihar.

PATNA, India // India was grappling yesterday with the task of feeding and housing close to a million villagers displaced by huge floods in the eastern state of Bihar, as the rescue effort wound down. About 900,000 people fled from their homes or were evacuated by boat since the Kosi River breached its defences three weeks ago on the Nepal border and changed course. Bihar officials have turned every available building - schools, temples, student housing - into temporary shelters.

But as destitute villagers squatted on roads after getting off rescue boats and mothers held babies ill from drinking muddy flood waters, survivors and charities said far more aid would be needed. "Private people are helping us, but the government is not helping us," said Mithilesh Yadav, 30, who left his village on a rescue boat with his wife and five children on Wednesday. "The schools, the camps, everything is full. We have put up these huts ourselves. We have to live somehow."

Up to five million people have been affected in India and a further 60,000 in Nepal, aid agencies say, underlining the scale of the task facing authorities and charities. At least 50,000 people in India have refused to abandon their homes despite pleas by authorities to evacuate, an official said yesterday. Newspaper advertisements also urged thousands of flood survivors yesterday to go to one of 77 state-run camps set up in Saharsa district in impoverished Bihar state, where clean drinking water, food and medical care was available.

"For us the evacuation part is over," state disaster official Pratyaya Amrit said at the weekend, as flood waters reduced gradually. "Despite our best efforts, people who are still stuck are refusing to come out." But he urged villagers in camps not to return home, and said rescue boats would remain on standby in case further evacuations were required. In relief camps in Nepal at least 14 people have died from disease, the senior official of the border district of Sunsari said yesterday.

The Indian media has been critical of aid efforts by the government and international agencies. One national daily, the Hindustan Times, ran a photograph of children with their hands outstretched for food with the headline, "India's shame". Aid agencies said they and authorities were doing everything they possibly could, but admitted there were still many awaiting food, shelter and health supplies.

"The government machinery and everyone have been moving around the clock," said Aditi Kapur, a spokesman for the British aid group Oxfam, which has workers in the badly affected Supaul area. "At the same time, there are still people in remote areas who are waiting for relief. Shelters are cramped and unhygienic. There are pregnant and lactating women who need safe drinking water. These things are not there."

The Kosi River, which flows down from the Himalayas in neighbouring Nepal into India, where it joins the Ganges, burst its banks on Aug 18 and dramatically shifted course, moving dozens of kilometres to the east. It turned hundreds of square kilometres of land in Bihar into a giant lake. On Saturday, government engineers began digging a new channel to correct the course of the river and plug the 1.6km long breach in the embankment.

Disaster officials have not said when it would be safe for villagers to return, and displaced residents may have to remain in camps for several months. Most areas will probably remain flooded until monsoon rains taper off , officials say. The top administrative officials in three of the five Indian districts flooded by the river have been replaced in the past two weeks amid allegations of mismanaging relief efforts, the Press Trust of India news agency has reported.

With India and Nepal still trading accusations on who was to blame for the failure of the flood walls, it was unclear when work on repairing the breach would start, and how long it would take to complete. The delays have meant that India must be ready to provide for at least a million people for several months. "This is really only the beginning," said Malini Morzaria, a European Commission humanitarian aid representative who visited the area last week, adding that the body has pledged ?2 million (Dh10.5m) to the aid effort.

"There is still much work to be done in reaching the most vulnerable," she said. With a month to go before the end of India's often deadly June-to-September monsoon season, officials warn the danger is far from over. "People think the flood is over. In the last two to three days, at least 10,000 to 15,000 have gone back," Mr Amrit, the state disaster official, said. "We have another 25 days to go. What if the levels go up again?"

* Agence France-Presse, with additional reporting by the Associated Press