Flood-affected villagers running to collect relief material droped by a helicopter in Madhepura district of Bihar yesterday. (AFP)

PATNA • 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.

Some 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 another 60,000 in Nepal, aid agencies say, underlining the scale of the task facing authorities and charities.

In relief camps in Nepal at least 14 people have died from disease, the top 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 spokeswoman for British aid group Oxfam, which has workers in the badly affected Supaul area.