"We can't do anything about the amount of water coming from Nepal," said Purna Kumari Subedi, the member of parliament for Nepal's Banke district, which borders Bihar.

"The same thing happened last year. Because of the dam constructed at Laxmanpur on the Indian side, a lot more land on the Nepali side was extremely flooded, affecting thousands of people," said Subedi.

The dam was against Nepal's interests and should be destroyed, she said.

Nepal's foreign ministry said India could have helped to alleviate the flooding upstream in the Himalayan kingdom.

"Some of the Terai plains areas bordering India were flooded because dams on the Indian side were kept closed," said Arjun Bahadur Thapa, Nepal's foreign ministry spokesman.

"We have not been able to sit for talks with our Indian counterparts about this as we are both busy dealing with the flooding," he said.

Torrential monsoon rains triggered flooding and landslides that have killed at least 93 people and affected around 270,000 in Nepal.

But flooding described as the worst in 30 years has affected 11.5 million people in Bihar. More than 90 people have died in the last two weeks.

Over 6,000 villages were submerged with at least two million people living outdoors, said Manoj Srivastava, the state's disaster management chief.

The skies cleared Monday, but a UN official warned that rivers upstream in Nepal were still overflowing, making it unlikely the flood water would recede soon.

Bihar authorities have sought federal government intervention to tackle the issue with Nepal, claiming excessive water flow had engulfed hundreds of villages in the Indian state that in the past had been unaffected by flooding.

"We have written to the prime minister to take up the issue with the Nepalese authorities," Bihar's chief minister, Nitish Kumar, said in the state capital of Patna.

"Floods are an annual feature because all rivers originating in the upper regions of the Himalayan kingdom send massive amounts of water, especially into northern regions of the state," Kumar told reporters.

Rains have eased in Nepal but authorities are concerned about outbreaks of water borne diseases as villagers slowly begin to return to their homes.

Sonia Gandhi, the leader of India's ruling Congress party, was due to visit Bihar on Tuesday. Home Minister Shivraj Patil was also expected to visit as aid efforts intensify.

earlier related report
Hunger, illness stalk millions in flood-ravaged India
Akharaghat (AFP) - Ramrati Singh wades through neck-deep floods twice a day to fill a pitcher with drinking water for her family of five who fled their village for a patch of highway in India's flood-ravaged Bihar. "I have to do it or else they will die of thirst or even worse -- diseases," the elderly woman said in Akharaghat village in the north of the state, where rain and Himalayan snow melt has combined to flood half of the 38 districts.

Singh is one of 11.5 million people affected by floods in Bihar, many of them left with little food to eat or clean water to drink, and public health experts warn disease could follow as the waters recede.

Like the old woman, the entire village in the worst-hit Darbhanga district is now camping on a dirt road as they wait for food to arrive from state capital Patna, 125 kilometres (77 miles) to the southwest.

"We have not even seen a single relief official in the past one week," said Muneshwar Singh, the woman's husband.

More than a quarter of Bihar's 6,000-plus flood-hit villages are in Darbhanga. Relief has been limited for swathes of the 2.5 million people hit by floods in this stricken district.

The worst floods in 30 years have left some areas partially or totally submerged and unreachable by boat, officials say, and relief packets can only be airdropped there by army helicopter.

But even in villages reachable by road, many say they are going hungry.

"We have not received any relief or even a fist-full of grains in the past 15 days," said Shauki Sani in nearby Majhouli village.

"Our entire family is going hungry."

A long stretch of the highway to the capital is now dotted with clusters of new shanties housing cattle and families who fled their homes after rivers burst their banks and flooded farmland.

State officials travel with armed guards, apparently in fear of attack by desperate flood victims in the deeply poor state with an already entrenched reputation for lawlessness and crime.

Health experts also warned of the possibility of disease following the floods.

"There is a huge chance of an outbreak of disease when things of this magnitude happen," said A.K. Pande, head of the Patna Medical College and Hospital, the state's largest healthcare facility.

"Receding floodwaters leave behind sludge and debris, which becomes the breeding ground for epidemics."

But the state's disaster commissioner told AFP Monday the relief operation was "in full swing" and that 1.5 million kilograms (3.3 million pounds) of wheat and rice had been distributed so far.

"The waters are also receding and that is helping us to augment relief operations," said Manoj Kumar Srivastava from capital Patna.

"Our commitment is that we will reach everyone who has been left out."

Srivastava said about 4,000 non-motorised boats were delivering relief to areas reachable by water while four army helicopters were dropping supplies to villages that were cut off.

Darbhanga district official Upendra Sharma said that the situation was improving with the area once again linked to the state capital.

"Very soon we pray heavy vehicles carrying essentials will be able to reach us," Sharma told AFP.

For one old man, however, those supplies will arrive too late.

In the district of Muzaffarabad, due west of Darbhanga, a crowd milled around near the body of an old man who died of starvation on a pavement Monday.

Bystanders said the 75-year-old man had been abandoned by his fleeing family.

"He has been lying here for the the past three or four days and finally hunger seems to have finished him off," said a man who was part of the crowd.

"If things do not improve there will be riots for food."

earlier related report
Water everywhere, but life goes on in Bangladesh
Sirajganj Bangladesh (AFP) The flood water stretches into the distance like a giant lake dotted with submerged hamlets and villagers paddling make-shift rafts made from banana trees. Millions of people across Sirajganj and other northern districts have been marooned by the deluge caused by snow melt and monsoon rains carried downstream from India by the mighty Jamuna river.

But life across the region is continuing as Bangladeshis, famed for their resilience in the face of floods, cyclones and political turmoil, prepare for the waters to take weeks to recede.

In Royhati Diapara village in the northwestern Sirajganj district, resident Mina wades waist-deep through the flood water holding her young son Mamun. The district has been the worst affected due to its proximity to the Jamuna.

"All the houses in the village except eight or 10 are under water," she said, adding that she has to walk for 15 minutes through flood water to collect clean water from a well.

"We didn't expect this flood. It took us by surprise so we did not store any food. Now we eat once or maybe twice a day, not three times," she said.

The family would not starve for the moment, she said, but her husband was not earning anything because the fields were under water and without work their only option would be to borrow money.

Travelling by boat in neighbouring Natore district, AFP found village after village at least partially flooded and water levels still rising. Villagers said the situation felt similar to the catastrophic floods of 1998, when two-thirds of the delta nation was submerged.

"My house is flooded with two feet of water. We are living in the same house but we have lifted up all the furniture onto bamboo platforms so even if the water goes up more we can still stay there," said Farida, a 25-year-old mother from the village of Hordoma.

Some 120 people, many of them children, have died as a result of the floods in central, eastern and northern Bangladesh. At least 100,000 mud or tin built homes have also been destroyed.

Forecasters expect more central areas to be submerged over coming days even though river levels in the north have now started to fall.

In Singra town, also in Natore district, tea stall owner Basanta Kumar Das, 60, said he had to leave his village because it was flooded by just under a metre (three feet) of water. He had rented rooms for his wife, eight children and grandchild in the town.

"This is not normal flooding. It is like in 1998," he told AFP as he served customers from a large blackened teapot.

"The water is gradually increasing. I have no idea how long it will take to go down," he said, adding that he estimated the cost of repairs to be at least two or three months' salary.

At least 20 percent of low-lying Bangladesh floods each year. In 2004, prolonged flooding across 38 percent of the country left at least 700 people dead.

For the moment, however, shops are still open. Rickshaw pullers continue to ferry people and goods, and buses are running thanks to main roads that are raised on embankments.

People are also busy making sure they are prepared for the floods to last several more weeks. Boats and rafts are being made and livestock, furniture and other household goods moved to high ground for safety.

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