By Biswajyoti Das
HAJO, India, Aug 8 (Reuters) - About 250 people are feared dead in monsoon flooding in India, Bangladesh and Bhutan, and some 2.5 million who have been washed out of their homes now face hunger and disease, officials said on Tuesday.
Latest figures provided by authorities in the three countries showed that 166 people had died and 84 had gone missing since swollen rivers began gushing off the Himalayas a fortnight ago.
Indian officials said the rivers had started receding, but the death toll could rise as more scattered rain is forecast.
They said the focus had shifted to relief and rehabilitation of the affected, many of whom are marooned on high ground, and measures to prevent outbreaks of disease.
In the northeastern state of Assam, one of the worst-hit areas, the skies had been clear for at least 36 hours.
"They are obviously concerned that the monsoon is not scheduled to end until mid-September. They fear that worse is to come," said Patrick Fuller, regional spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
"Until the flood waters recede we can't mobilise relief of any scale."
There was a desperate need for food, clean water, water purification tablets, tarpaulin coverings, clothing, cooking utensils and bedding in relief camps, which Fuller described as little better than "displacement centres".
He said there had been some early reports in Assam of water-borne diseases, but not of epidemics, which would only emerge later if relief does not reach affected people soon.
"Epidemics will start now. We are launching a health awareness campaign," Robindra Nath Malakar, a government doctor at a relief camp in Hajo, 35 km (21 miles) outside the state's main city, Guwahati, told Reuters.
Many villagers rushed to the camp last week after the Brahmaputra river, normally 1.5 km (one mile) wide, doubled in size, inundating villages and paddy fields along its banks.
At the Hajo camp, dazed villagers dressed only in loincloths and vests queued up for free rice and lentils.
"Our houses have been washed away. Now we have no property and no money to build a house," said Murshida Begum, who reached Hajo with her four younger sisters last Friday. "We don't know what we will do after the relief workers go."
About 50 people came to the camp with cows and goats.
"That is the only property I could save," said Dewan Rafiuddin, who managed to bring two of this six cows.
CHOPPERS, MOTOR BOATS DROP SUPPLIES
Meanwhile, in the north and east of the country, armed forces stepped up helicopter sorties and motor boat trips to distribute provisions and medicines to thousands in make-shift camps.
In the eastern state of Bihar, the government said 29 people had died, 1.6 million people had been displaced, 1,042 villages were inundated and nearly 4,000 houses had collapsed.
"Two army choppers and 120 army personnel are engaged in evacuating marooned people and dropping food packets in four worst-affected districts..." Bihar Relief and Rehabilitation Commissioner S.D. Sharma told Reuters
Rail and road traffic was badly affected, with floodwaters covering railway tracks and roads in several places.
Officials in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh said 44 bodies had been recovered so far, while 107 persons were still stated to be missing after flash floods.
About half a million people were marooned in Bangladesh as rivers swept down from Indian hills across the border. Officials and media reports said at least 13 had died in the floods.
Reports said the rivers were rising with rainwaters still flowing from catchment areas upstream in India.
Hundreds of people were displaced in the Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Newspapers said about 40 people were missing after the Barsa river, diverted by a landslide, slammed into the industrial town of Pasakha. (additional reporting by Faizan Ahmad in Patna)